Determiners and their general features as a part of speech

4. 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 uncountable noun or a plural noun with no determiner:⁷
Milk is very good for you. (= uncountable noun)
Health and education are very important. (= 2 uncountable 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 uncountable 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 license 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.
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/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.
3. We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns and uncountable nouns:
She was wearing blue shoes. (= plural noun)
She has short blonde hair. (= uncountable noun)
Panama Canal.⁸
• 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
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:

all	any	enough	less	a lot of	lots of
more	most	no	none of	some

and some more colloquial forms:

plenty of

heaps of

a load of

loads of

tons of

etc.

Some quantifiers can be used only with count nouns:

both

each

either

(a) few

fewer

neither

several

and some more colloquial forms:

a couple of

hundreds of

thousands of

etc.

Some quantifiers can be used only with uncountable nouns:

a little

(not) much

a bit of

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:
*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 flowers.	=	All the shops were decorated with 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.