Determiners in English are one of the important structures and often appear in English tests. Therefore, let's learn about structures and how to use them in English with EnglishTopVN!
- Determiners is a word that comes before a noun or a noun phrase and before an adjective. Therefore, the determiner cannot stand alone but must be followed by a noun or a noun phrase.
- Determiners or demonstrative words are words that are often placed before definite nouns to refer to a specific or special person/event/thing that you are referring to.
Type of determiner | Listed |
For example |
- Article | a, an, the |
The I saw a girl last night. |
- Indicative determiners | this, that, these, those |
Look at these flowers! |
- Possessive determiners | my, his, her, your, our, their, its |
My father works at a big insurance company. |
- From only numbers | all, every, most, many, much, some, few, little, any, no… |
We don’t have much money. We don’t have many eggs. |
- Number of words | one, two, three, first, second, third,….. |
I ordered two cakes. She won third prize. |
- From the term Doubt | whose, which, what |
Whose car did you borrow? Which books have you read? |
- Articles are the most common determiners.
- Contains 3 words: a, an, the
- Articles are divided into two types: definite and indefinite articles.
Indefinite article |
Definite article |
|
Use with |
Singular noun |
For all nouns (singular, plural, countable and uncountable) |
Use when |
The listener/speaker does not know anything about the object being talked about or only knows in general terms |
When the speaker/listener already knows who the person is talking about |
For example |
He met a girl last night. |
The girl is kind and lovely. The red wine. |
Demonstrative determiners are used to indicate how far or close someone is to the speaker.
Contains 4 words: this, that, these, those
Near the |
Shah |
|
Singular |
This |
That |
Many |
These |
Those |
For example:
That man over there looks scary.
These books belong to mine.
Possessive determiners, aka Positive adjectives, used to indicate that someone is “own" something.
For example:
We sold our house last week.
Your wish is my commend.
Her dress is from the latest collection.
Attention:
+ Do not confuse Possessive Determiners, also known as Possessive Adjectives, with Possessive Pronouns.
+ Distinguishing ITS from IT'S (= IT + IS):Eg:
The cat licks its fur.
It’s raining. = It is raining.
Look at the train! It’s comming. = It is comming
3.4. From only numbers
- Quantity words are words that describe the quantity of a noun phrase.
Only used with countable nouns |
Only used with uncountable nouns |
Used for both types of nouns |
- a few - a number of - several - many - a majority of - every … |
- a little … |
- all- a bit of - a lot of / lots of - no / none - not any - plenty of - any - some … |
For example:
All students from this school passed the entrance exam.
She had no money.
Enough
- Formula used with the word Enough: Enough + noun
Adjective / Adverb / Verb + Enough
For example:
- Includes counting numbers and ordinal numbers:
+ Count: one, two, three,….
There are about two hundred (200) people on the street.
He has just made his second score.
The first three people who answer correctly will get a present.
- Contains 3 words: which, what, whose
.+ Whose used to express the idea of "belonging to someone". Whose often used in sentences related to Relative Clauses– Relative pronouns.
+ What Used to ask for specific information about something.
+ Which also used to ask for specific information about something, but from a fixed set. (the questioner had a certain number of options and asked the listener which one he liked)
For example:
What sports do you like?
Which dress do you like? The red one or the green one?
Whose iPhone was stolen?
- There are 3 qualifiers that indicate difference.
That is: another, other và the other.
- How to use:
+ Another: used to refer to something different from, or in addition to, something previously mentioned
Used with singular nouns.
Would you like another cup of coffee?
→ 1 more cup of coffee
Another reason to reject his offer is….
→ One more reason is…
+ Other: used to refer to something different from what was previously mentioned
Used with plural nouns
I have no other ideas.
→ other comments
There are other jobs you could try.
→ other work
+ The other: used to refer to the remaining item(s) in the previously mentioned item(s).
Used with singular or plural nouns
I enjoyed the first book but I didn’t read the other books in the series.
→ the remaining books in the series
Where is the other box ofcandy?
→ the remaining box of candy