Determiners and quantifiers

General and specific determiners

Determiners are words which come at the beginning of the noun phrase.

They tell us whether the noun phrase is specific or general.

Determiners are either specific or general

Specific determiners:

The specific determiners are:

 the definite article: the

 possessives: my, your, his, her, its; our, their, whose

 demonstratives: this, that, these, those

 interrogatives: which

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?

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

General determiners:

The general determiners are:

 a; an; any; another; other; what

When we are talking about things in general and the listener/reader does not know
exactly what we are referring to, we can use an uncount noun or a plural noun with
no determiner:

Milk is very good for you. (= uncount noun)

Health and education are very important. (= 2 uncount nouns)
Girls normally do better in school than boys. (= plural nouns with no determiner)

… or you can use a singular noun with the indefinite article a or an:

A woman was lifted to safety by a helicopter.

A man climbing nearby saw the accident.

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.
I like beef, lamb, pork - any meat.

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.

interrogative determiners: which and what

We use "which" as a determiner to ask a question about a specific group of people or
things:

Which restaurant did you go to?

Which countries in South America have you visited?

When we are asking a general question we use "what" as a determiner:

What films do you like?

What university did you go to?

indefinite article: a and an

1. We use the indefinite article, a/an, with count nouns when the hearer/reader does
not know exactly which one we are referring to:

Police are searching for a 14 year-old girl.

2. We also use it to show the person or thing is one of a group:

She is a pupil at London Road School.

Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since Friday.

Jenny Brown, a pupil at London Road School, is described as 1.6 metres tall with short blonde hair.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue jeans and blue shoes. 

Anyone who has information should contact the local police on 0800349781.
3. We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns and uncount nouns:

She was wearing blue shoes. (= plural noun)

She has short blonde hair. (= uncount noun)

Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since Friday.

Jenny Brown, a pupil at London Road School, is described as 1.6 metres tall with short blonde hair.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue jeans and blue shoes. 

Anyone who has information should contact the local police on 0800349781.

 

4. We use a/an to say what someone is or what job they do:

My brother is a doctor.

George is a student.

5. We use a/an with a singular noun to say something about all things of that kind:

A man needs friends. (= All men need friends)

A dog likes to eat meat. (= All dogs like to eat meat)

definite article: the

The definite article the  is the most frequent word in English.

We use the definite article in front of a noun when we believe the hearer/reader

knows exactly what we are referring to.

• because there is only one:

The Pope is visiting Russia.

The moon is very bright tonight.
The Shah of Iran was deposed in 1979.

This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective:

He is the tallest boy in the class.

It is the oldest building in the town.

• because there is only one in that place or in those surroundings:

 
We live in a small village next to the church.  =  (the church in our village)

Dad, can I borrow the car? = (the car that belongs to our family)

When we stayed at my grandmother’s house we went to the beach  (the beach near my grandmother’s
 =
every day. house)

Look at the boy in the blue shirt over there.  = (the boy I am pointing at)

 
• because we have already mentioned it:

A woman who fell 10 metres from High Peak was lifted to safety by a
helicopter. The woman fell while climbing.
The rescue is the latest in a series of incidents on High Peak. In January last year
two men walking on the peak were killed in a fall. 

We also use the definite article:

• to say something about all the things referred to by a noun:

The wolf is not really a dangerous animal (= Wolves are not really dangerous
animals)
The kangaroo is found only in Australia (= Kangaroos are found only in Australia)
The heart pumps blood around the body. (= Hearts pump blood around bodies)

We use the definite article in this way to talk about musical instruments:

Joe plays the piano really well.(= Joe can play any piano)
She is learning the guitar.(= She is learning to play any guitar)

• to refer to a system or service:

How long does it take on the train?

I heard it on the radio.
You should tell the police.

• With adjectives like rich, poor, elderly, unemployed to talk about groups of people:

Life can be very hard for the poor.

I think the rich should pay more taxes.
She works for a group to help the disabled.
The definite article with names:

We do not normally use the definite article with names:

William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

Paris is the capital of France.
Iran is in Asia.

But we do use the definite article with:

• countries whose names include words like kingdom, states  or republic:

the United Kingdom; the Kingdom of Nepal; the United States; the People’s
Republic of China.

• countries which have plural nouns as their names:

the Netherlands; the Philippines

• geographical features, such as mountain ranges, groups of islands, rivers, seas,
oceans and canals:

the Himalayas; the Canaries; the Atlantic; the Atlantic Ocean; the Amazon; the
Panama Canal.

• newspapers:

The Times; The Washington Post

• well known buildings or works of art:

the Empire State Building; the Taj Mahal; the Mona Lisa; the Sunflowers

• organisations:

the United Nations; the Seamen’s Union

• hotels, pubs and restaurants*:

the Ritz; the Ritz Hotel; the King’s Head; the Déjà Vu

*Note: We do not use the definite article if the name of the hotel or restaurant is
the name of the owner, e.g.,Brown’s; Brown’s Hotel; Morel’s; Morel’s Restaurant,
etc.

• families:

the Obamas; the Jacksons

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.

We use these quantifiers with both count and uncount nouns:

a lot
all any enough less lots of
of

mor
most no none of some  
e

and some more colloquial forms:

plenty a load tons  etc

heaps of loads of
of of of .

Some quantifiers can be used only with count nouns:

bot eithe neithe

each (a) few fewer several
h r r

and some more colloquial forms:

a couple etc
hundreds of thousands of
of .
 

Some quantifiers can be used only with uncount nouns:

a
(not) much a bit of
little

And, particularly with abstract nouns such as time, money, trouble, etc:, we often

use:
 

a great deal of a good deal of

Members of groups

You can put a noun after a quantifier when you are talking about members of a
group in general…

Few snakes are dangerous.

Both brothers work with their father.
I never have enough money.
…but if you are talking about a specific group of people or things, use of the … as well

Few of the snakes are dangerous.

All of the children live at home.
He has spent all of his money.

Note that, 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 was closed Both the supermarkets were closed. All the supermarkets were closed
 One supermarket Two supermarkets* More than two supermarkets

Neither of the supermarkets was open.

The supermarket wasn't open None of the supermarkets were open
I don’t think either of the
I don’t think the supermarket supermarkets was open. I don't think any of the supermarkets
was open. were open

*Nouns with either  and neither  have a singular  verb.

 
Singular quantifiers:

We use every  or each  with a singular noun to mean all:

There was a party in every street.  = There were parties in all the streets.

Every shop was decorated with

 = All the shops were decorated with flowers.
flowers.

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.

BUT: We do not use a determiner with every  and each. We do not say:

The every shop was decorated with flowers.

The each child was given a prize.