Determiners

Determiners form a class of words that occur in the left-most position inside noun phrases. They thus precede nouns, as well as any adjectives that may be present.

The most common determiners are the and a/an (these are also called the definite aticle and indefinite article).

Here are some more determiners:

• any taxi
• that question
• those apples
• this paper
• some apple
• whatever taxi
• whichever taxi

As these examples show, determiners can have various kinds of 'specifying' functions. For example, they can help us to identify which person or thing the noun refers to. So, if in a conversation with you I talk about that man you will know who I am talking about. In the following examples the determiners specify a quantity:

• all examples
• both parents
• many people
• each person
• every night
• several computers
• few excuses
• enough water
• no escape

Be aware that the following items belong to the class of pronouns when they occur on their own (e.g. I like this very much), but when they occur before nouns (e.g. this book) they belong to both the determiner and pronoun classes:

• this/that
• these/those

What about possessive my, your, his/her, our, and their when they occur before nouns, as in my book, her bicycle?

The National Curriculum Glossary has examples like her book in the entries for ‘possessive’, ‘pronoun' and ‘determiner’, which seems to suggest that they belong to both classes, i.e. deteminer and pronoun. In our grammar videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/engliciousgrammar), especially videos 2 and 3, we hedge our bets and say that her belongs to both classes, i.e. it’s both a determiner and a pronoun, because this is what then NC seems to be claiming. (See also 'Advanced'.) However, in the GPS tests for KS1 and KS2 it is always assumed that these words are determiners, not pronouns, despite what it says in the glossary.

The words mine, yours, his/hers, ours and theirs (e.g.That phone is mine) occur on their own and we take them to be pronouns.

Determiners can sometimes be modified themselves, usually by a preceding modifier, examples being [almost every] night and [very many] people.

Here are some more words acting as determiners. These examples are drawn directly from the ICE-GB corpus. Refreshing your screen will produce a new list of examples. Which noun does each determiner point at, and what does each determiner tell us about the noun?

• It is worth noting that important filters operate before an inspector receives notification that an accident has occurred, especially in relation to less serious injuries. _{[W2A-018 #27]}
• It is essential for all of our sakes that the authority of the United Nations is upheld  _{[S2B-030 #90]}
• At the moment my address is two hundred A Monkton Street _{[S1B-074 #277]}
• The images are distributed to users as low-resolution facsimiles by telephone, sometimes using the GOES satellites as data relays. _{[W2A-037 #74]}
• If you know where to go you can find baby animals hidden away in animal dealers ’ compounds and in the dingier realms of animal markets. _{[W2B-021 #17]}
• Yeah well all credit to the lad  _{[S1A-095 #210]}
• Not being a lover of the French I would blame the French _{[S1A-088 #206]}
• The Treasury has also secured some epic cuts: in discretionary social security, in the Home Office budget and, at least in year three of the survey period, in defence, which will by then be taking its lowest proportion of national income since 1945. _{[W2C-008 #90]}
• I ’ll ask my Contracts colleagues in UCLi to top up this reply where necessary, but I hope the following assurances ease your understandable concerns. _{[W1B-029 #25]}
• So they built themselves a magnificent amphitheatre for popular sporting activities  _{[S2B-027 #21]}

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