Page 30 - Grammar Glow - 8

5 5 Determiners

Warm-up

Fill in the blanks with correct determiners.
1. Kiran Bedi is _________________ retired IPS officer.

2. _________________ poor woman lives in small hut.
3. I prefer mountains to _________________ seaside.

4. We worked in _________________ same company.
5. My sister is _________________ MPhil.
6. Have you got _________________ new books?

The word that modifies a noun by referring to something specific or something of a particular
type is called the determiner. A determiner is always followed by a noun.

For example: this chair, that dog, some coins, etc.

Kinds of Determiners

There are six different kinds of determiners:

1. Articles 2. Demonstratives 3. Possessives
4. Distributives 5. Quantifiers 6. Interrogatives

Articles

Articles are of two types: definite and indefinite.

¾ The definite article the is used when we talk about a specific thing which both the speaker
and the listener know about.
Read the sentences given below.

• I like the flowers in your garden.

• The book you want is out of print.

¾ Indefinite articles a and an are used when we are not referring to any specific thing or
person. An is used before words that start with a vowel sound.

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