LIWA

Determiners

ICSE Class 7 · English · Chapter 2

What this chapter covers

Key definitions

Articles are the three determiners a, an and the, used before nouns to tell whether a noun is general or particular.

Demonstratives are the determiners this, that, these and those, which point out a particular noun and tell if it is near the speaker or far away.

Possessive determiners are the words my, your, his, her, its, our and their, placed before a noun to show who owns it or who it belongs to. "My cycle", "her painting" and "their house" all tell you whose thing is meant.

Quantifiers are determiners that tell how much or how many of something there is, without giving an exact number. Some, any, much, many, few and little are the commonest ones.

Countable nouns are nouns for things that can be counted one by one, and they have both a singular and a plural form, such as book/books and mango/mangoes.

Uncountable nouns are nouns for things that are thought of as a mass and are not counted one by one, such as water, rice, sugar, advice and information.

Numerals are number words, and they act as determiners when they come before a noun to give its exact number or its place in an order.

Cardinal numerals are the counting words one, two, three, twenty, a hundred and so on, which tell exactly how many. "Three buses", "fifty runs" and "one hundred trees" all use cardinal numerals.

Ordinal numerals are the words first, second, third, tenth and so on, which show the position of something in a series. "The first bench", "the second innings" and "the fifth floor" all use ordinal numerals.

Distributives are the determiners each, every, either and neither, which refer to the members of a group one at a time rather than all together.

Key points

Questions answered

Define a determiner and give two examples.
A determiner is a word placed before a noun to show which thing, whose thing, or how much or how many of it is meant. Examples: the, my.
Fill in a or an: ___ umbrella, ___ uniform, ___ hour, ___ useful book.
an umbrella, a uniform, an hour, a useful book. The choice depends on the first sound, not the first letter.
Is that a determiner or a pronoun in each sentence? (a) That is my seat. (b) That seat is mine.
(a) Pronoun, because no noun follows it. (b) Determiner, because it comes before the noun seat.
Explain the difference between "Few students passed" and "A few students passed".
"Few students passed" means almost none passed, a negative idea. "A few students passed" means a small number passed, a positive idea.
Correct the sentence: "How much apples are left in the basket?"
"How many apples are left in the basket?" Apples is a countable noun, so many is needed.
Why is "Every players has a jersey" wrong? Correct it.
When every comes directly before a noun, the noun and its verb are singular. Correct form: "Every player has a jersey".
Choose each or every: "The guard stood on ___ side of the gate".
each, because a gate has two sides and every is used for three or more.
Rewrite with the numerals in the right order: "the three first chapters".
"the first three chapters". The ordinal comes before the cardinal.