Determiners and Quantifiers

Determiners:

Determiners identify a noun, whether that noun is general or something specific. Determiners can also be thought of as a modifier for nouns, it works exactly like an adjective. It consists of:

 

Definite Article “The” :

For Example:

  • Pass me the papers that I need to sign.
  • The Black bag on the table is mine.

In the above examples, ‘The’ is used to indicate a specific paper.

 

Indefinite Articles “a/an”:

For Example:

  • Bring me a headphone from the table.
  • An elephant and a cat fell in love.

The above examples make use of “a/an” to indicate something in general.

 

Possessives:

For Example:

  • Your grades were horrible this semester.
  • Her work is always completed on time.

 

The demonstratives:

For Example:

  • This documentary is quite detailed.
  • That restaurant is known for its fried chicken.
  • These examples would define what the demonstratives are.

 

Interrogative:

For Example:

  • Which company do you work for?
  • What is the scope of computer science?

 

Quantifiers:

The quantifiers are somewhat like determiners. However, they indicate quantity such as: “few, some, a lot, much, none, more, etc.”

For Example:

  • Traveling around the world requires a large amount of
  • The picnic was much more fun than I expected.

 

Rules for countable and uncountable nouns:

For quantifiers, there are some quantifiers that could be used on with countable nouns and similarly, there are some that can only be used with uncountable nouns.

Countable Nouns Uncountable Nouns
a, an or the the
this, that, these or those This or that
many Much
A few, few, fewer than A little, little, less than
A number of Amount of