FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR

Determiners and Qualifiers

Determiners and quantifiers

Determiners and quantifiers are words we use in front of nouns (before) a noun or at the
beginning of a noun phrase to make it clear what the noun refers to such as the, my, this, some,
twenty, each, any .. We use determiners to identify things (this book, my sister) and we use
quantifiers to say how much or how many (a few people, a lot of problems).
There can be only ONE main determiner in a noun phrase
Determiners include the following common types:
Determiners in English

Specific and general determiners

Determiners are words which come at the beginning of noun phrases. They tell us whether a noun
phrase is specific or general

Specific determiners are:

Definite article : the

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Possessive determiners : my, your, his, her, its, our, their,whose

We use a specific determiner when we believe the listener/reader knows exactly what we are
referring to:

Can you pass me the salt, please?

Thank you very much for your letter.
Whose coat is this?
Look at those lovely flowers

his/that, these/those
The demonstrative determiners this/that, these/those point to something that is close or
distant. The closeness can be in:

 space (next to the speaker, 20 metres from the speaker, 1000km from the speaker)
 time (now, yesterday, last week, next year)

near far

singular this that

plural these those

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
Like all determiners, demonstrative determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, so
they come in front of any adjective(s).

Look at these example sentences:

 I like this food.

 I use these pens.
 I have to do it this morning.
 We don't meet these days.
 Look at that big cloud.
 Can you see those birds?
 Do you remember that man we met last week?
 Those days on holiday were enjoyable.

Possessive Determiners
my, your, his, her, its, our, their

We use possessive determiners to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive
determiners are:

 my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Warning! These are determiners. Don't confuse them with possessive pronouns.

Like all determiners, possessive determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, so they
come in front of any adjective(s).

Look at these example sentences:

possessive determiner with gender (Male, Female,

example sentence
Neuter)

SINGULAR

my M/F This is my book.

his M His name is John.

her F Her first name is Mary.

its N The dog licked its wounded paw.

PLURAL

our M/F We have sold our house.

The students thanked their Thai

their M/F/N
teacher.

SINGULAR or PLURAL

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
I like your hair.
your M/F
Your two children are lovely.

Be careful with these three possessive determiners:

possessive determiner contraction (sounds the same)

1. your: you're (you are):

This is your book. Hurry up! You're late!

it's (it is/it has):

2. its:
It's coming. (It is coming...)
The dog licked its paw.
It's arrived. (It has arrived...)

they're (they are):

3. their: They're waiting. (They are waiting...)
Which is their house?
Also note there as an adverb:
I'm not going there.
Be careful! There is NO apostrophe (') in the possessive determiner its. We use an apostrophe to
write the contraction of "it is" or "it has". For example:
it is raining → it's raining
it has finished → it's finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.

General determiners

We use a general determiner when we are talking about things in general and the listener/reader
does not know exactly what we are referring to.

The general determiners are:

 Indefinite articles : a, an
 Numbers : one, ten, thirty
 Distributives : all, both, half, either, neither, each, every
 Difference words : other, another
 Pre-determiners : such, what, rather, quite

a/an 0 (no determiner) any another other

The most frequent general determiner is the indefinite article a/an used with singular nouns:

A man came this morning and left a parcel.

He was wearing a big coat and a cap.

We use no determiner with plural nouns and uncount nouns:

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
Girls normally do better in school than boys. (plural nouns)
Milk is very good for you. (uncount noun)
Health and education are very important. (uncount nouns)

We use the general determiner any with a singular noun or an uncount noun when we are
talking about all of those people or things:

It's very easy. Any child can do it. = All children can do it.
With a full licence you are allowed to drive any car. = all cars
I like bananas, oranges, apples – any fruit. = all kinds of fruit

(Note that any is also used as a quantifier in negative and interrogative sentences.)

We use the general determiner another to talk about an additional person or thing:

Would you like another glass of wine?

The plural form of another is other:

I spoke to John, Helen and a few other friends.

Quantifiers :
We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of
something: how much or how many.

Sometimes we use a quantifier in the place of a determiner:

Most children start school at the age of five.

We ate some bread and butter.
We saw lots of birds.

Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns

We can use these quantifiers with both count and uncount nouns:

all some more a lot of enough

no any most lots of less

We have lots of time.

Joe has lots of friends.
I can't go out. I've got no money.
There was a lot of food but no drinks.

These more colloquial forms are also used with both count and uncount nouns:

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
plenty of heaps of a load of loads of tons of

We have loads of time.

Joe has plenty of friends.
There was heaps of food.

some and any

We do not normally use the quantifier some in negative and interrogative sentences. We
normally use any:

Do you have any children?

Did you see any friends?
We don't have any children.
I didn't see any friends.
We saw some lions at the zoo, but we didn't see any tigers.

but we can use some for offers and requests:

Would you like some tea?

I want some apples, please.

Quantifiers with count nouns

Some quantifiers can be used only with count nouns:

(not) many each either (a) few

several both neither fewer

These more colloquial forms are used only with count nouns:

a couple of hundreds of thousands of

I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.

There were hundreds of people at the meeting.

Quantifiers with uncount nouns

Some quantifiers can be used only with uncount nouns:

(not) much a bit of a little

Would you like a little wine?

Could I have a bit of butter, please?

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
These quantifiers are used particularly with abstract nouns such as time, money and trouble:

a great deal of a good deal of

It will probably cost a great deal of money.

He spent a good deal of time watching television.

We put a noun directly after a quantifier when we are talking about members of a group in
general:

Few snakes are dangerous.

Most children like chocolate.
I never have enough money.

but if we are talking about members of a specific group, we use of the as well:

Few of the snakes in this zoo are dangerous.

Most of the boys at my school play football.
He’s spent all (of) the money that we gave him.
Both (of) the chairs in my office are broken.

Note: with all and both, we don’t need to use of. We can say all the … and both the … .

both, either and neither

If we are talking about two people or things, we use the quantifiers both, either and neither:

One supermarket Two supermarkets More than two supermarkets

The supermarket Both the supermarkets All the supermarkets

was closed. were closed. were closed.
The supermarket Neither of the supermarkets None of the supermarkets
wasn’t open. was open. were open.
I don’t think the I don’t think either of the I don’t think any of the
supermarket supermarkets supermarkets
was open. was open. were open.

Note that nouns with both have a plural verb but nouns with either and neither have a
singular verb.

every and each

We use the quantifiers every and each with singular nouns to mean all:

There was a party in every street. (= There were parties in all the streets.)
Every shop was decorated with flowers. (= All the shops were decorated with flowers.)

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
Each child was given a prize. (= All the children were given a prize.)
There was a prize in each competition. (= There were prizes in all the competitions.)

We often use every to talk about times like days, weeks and years:

When we were children, we had holidays at our grandmother's every year.

When we stayed at my grandmother's house, we went to the beach every day.
We visit our daughter every Christmas.

We do not use a determiner with every and each:

Every shop was decorated with flowers. (NOT The every shop)
Each child was given a prize. (NOT The each child)

Numbers
cardinal and ordinal numbers double/twice/three times...

Numbers are one kind of determiner. In terms of meaning, numbers are similar to quantifier
determiners, but most grammarians treat them separately.

Numbers can be "cardinal" (one, two, three) or "ordinal" (first, second, third), as shown in this
table:

cardinal ordinal
1 one first 1st
2 two second 2nd
3 three third 3rd
10 ten tenth 10th
21 twenty-one twenty-first 21st
99 ninety-nine ninety-ninth 99th
100 one hundred one hundredth 100th
1000 one thousand one thousandth 1000th

Like all determiners, numbers come at the beginning of a noun phrase, so they come in front
of any adjective(s).

Look at these example sentences:

 I ordered two cakes.

 There were three hundred angry people present.
 Jane won first prize and Jo won third prize.
 They have just produced their one millionth sports car.

When used together in a noun phrase, ordinals normally come before cardinals.

 The first three prizes went to the same family.

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
The interrogative determiners are which and what.

which is a specific determiner

Here are three books. Which book do you think is the most interesting?
They have four boys. Which boy is the oldest?
I can’t remember which house Janet lives in.
Which restaurant did you go to?
what is a general determiner

What food do you like?

I don’t know what job she does.

Pre-Determiners and Post-Determiners

Pre-determiners come before main determiners and post-determiners come after main
determiners

Order of Determiners
There are rules about the order of determiners in a noun phrase.

1. It's possible to have NO determiner: John likes dogs. People breathe air. Wine is alcohol.
This is the so-called "zero determiner", and is mainly possible with proper nouns (i.e. names),
plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns.

2. All determiners, when present, come at the BEGINNING of a noun phrase (before any
adjectives): the big black dog / my favourite car

3. If you have a "main determiner", you can have only ONE. The main determiners are:

 articles: a/an, the

 demonstratives: this/that, these/those
 possessives: my/your/his etc

So if you have an article, you cannot also have a demonstrative. If you have a possessive, you
cannot also have an article. You can have one article OR one demonstrative OR one
possessive. For example, you can say "this dog" or "my dog", but you cannot say "this my
dog". The table below shows how the main determiners "mutually exclude" each other:

noun phrase

main determiners

articles demonstratives possessives

a dog

the soup

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
this flower

those birds

my sister

their car

4. Some determiners function as "pre-determiners" — they can come BEFORE a main

determiner. You can have ONE pre-determiner: all the right people / half my weight

5. Other determiners function as "post-determiners" — they can come AFTER a main

determiner. You can have ONE OR MORE post-determiners: the next time / my first two jobs

6. If you do have more than one determiner, the table below is a guide to the normal order.
Remember, this is a guide only. Not every combination is possible.

you can have up to

one of these + one of these + one or more of these

pre-deter-
main determiners post-determiners
miners

quant- art- demon- posses- cardinals, other quant-

ordinals
ifiers icles stratives sives ifiers

one/two...
many/
much
all, both a/ this/that first/ more/
half, one-third an/ these/ my/her etc second... most
double, twice, ten times the those last/next few/little
less/least
several
other

all those last few dollars

both my younger sisters

three times your salary

a little more red wine

an- -other drink

the most money

the next three weeks

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
these first three seats

my last wife

her next two husbands

four more people

several other friends

Determiners versus Pronouns

Many determiners are also pronouns, and it's important to understand the difference.

A determiner occurs at the beginning of a noun phrase and in some way qualifies the rest of
the noun phrase. A determiner cannot exist alone:

 Those classic songs were great.

 My car is the big one.

A pronoun can take the place of a whole noun phrase:

 Those were great classic songs.

 Those were great.
 Mine is the big one.

Most determiners and pronouns are exactly the same word: either (determiner) and either
(pronoun)

A few determiners and pronouns are close but not exactly the same: my (determiner) and
mine (pronoun)

Here are some examples of determiners that have a pronoun equivalent:

determiners pronouns

demonstratives

this, that this, that

these, those these, those

quantifiers

some, any some, any

no none

many/much many/much

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
enough, several enough, several

more, most more, most

either, neither either, neither

each each

all, half, both all, half, both

possessives (see full list below)

my/his etc mine/his etc

interrogatives

what, which, whose what, which, whose

Here is a full list of possessive determiners and pronouns:

determiners pronouns

possessives

my mine

your yours

his his
her hers
its its

our ours

their theirs

Practice :

Choose the right forms some, any, an or a to complete the following sentences in English.
At twelve o’clock we had food.
Did you bring ……………… ;;; bread?
I’d like …………………….. ;water, please.
Didn’t you bring ………………………… money?
I asked the waiter for………………………. tea.
I bought……………… ; books, but I didn’t buy ………………………… ;;pen.
I have………………………. information for you.
I sent her ………………. ;card from France.
I want…………………… bread and ……………………..kilo of cheese, please.

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 FIRST YEAR GRAMMAR
Determiners and Qualifiers
I’ve got …………………bananas and …………………. apple.
I have …………………….bad news for you.
She didn’t give me…………………… money.
Sorry, I haven’t got………………… matches.
There aren’t …………………………. students here at the moment.
Would you like …………….. coffee?

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