What Are Determiners in English?

Study English Grammar — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 05:11:18 +0000

It is important to construct sentences which are correct. In order to construct a correct sentence in English, we need to know the different aspects of constructing a sentence. If we know ‘what’, ‘how’ or ‘when’ a particular word should be used, it is easier.

What are determiners?

In English, determiners are words which are mostly used to:

Define a noun which can be a thing or a person
State the quantity or the amount of things or people
State the possessives
State specificity to a thing or a person
State how things or the person can be distributed
State, how one noun is different from the other nouns?
State whether something or someone is not specific

There are different types of determiners in English language. Each of those specific determiners is used by following few rules of grammar. The use of determiners mainly depends on the type of noun that we are trying to describe. The standard rule of using determiners is:

Singular nouns will need a determinerRead more...

Grammar – The Possessive and Plural Nouns and Proper Names

Study English Grammar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:49:25 +0000

The difficulty over the apostrophe starts when we move on to plural nouns. The problem arises from thinking that the apostrophe has something to do with making words plural. It does not. To repeat the point we made earlier: adding’s has nothing to do with making words plural.

We usually make nouns plural by adding s; so, for example, cat becomes cats; student becomes students. There are, though, some words which make their plurals differently: the plural of child is children; leaf becomes leaves; kiss becomes kisses; mouse becomes mice. Most nouns, however, form plurals simply by adding s to the singular.

Where students usually get in a muddle – if this applies to you, read slowly at this point – is with the apostrophe when there is a plural noun. There is, though, no need for confusion. The basic rule is that you adds to form a possessive. Thus:

The children’s party had to be cancelled.

This means that the party of the children had to be cancelled: the plural noun is children. With this example we can compare the following, all adding’s: George’s essay, France’s... Read more...

Study English Grammar » plural noun

What Are Determiners in English?

Grammar – The Possessive and Plural Nouns and Proper Names