Determiners and Their Proper Order

 What is Determiner?

A determiner comes at the beginning of the noun phrase to introduce that noun and determine whether that noun is general or specific. In other words, it gives clarifying and quantifying information. Look at the example below:

• This is my house. 
• That is the dog I am looking for. 
• That house is mine. 
• I have five pens. 
• Many students are here. 
• Some nice gifts I received yesterday. 
• I need a lot of experience. 

Determiners and adjectives have both similarities and dissimilarities. They are similar in the sense that both of them modify or give extra information about nouns. They are different from each other in the sense that while determiners, sitting before nouns, introduce these nouns to the audience, adjectives provide further details about nouns. Look at the diagram below and see the classification of determiners.

Types of Determiner:

Arup Roy, Lecturer in English Language & Literature, Kanchkura University College, Uttarkhan, Airport, Dhaka

You can watch the video by following the link below:

1. Article

There are three articles--a, an, and the--which define whether a noun is specific or unspecific. 

• The Padma is the biggest river in our country. 

Through the usage of the article "the", I am mentioning a specific river and it is the Padma. 

• A dog is a faithful animal. 
• Writing an article requires hard labor.

Here, articles "a" and "an" create a general statement. Here, we, in general, understand that any dog is faithful, and writing an article is difficult. 

2. Demonstrative

A demonstrative determiner is a word which we use to specifically refer to someone/more than one or something/few things which are near or far from us. This, these, that, and those are demonstrative determiners. 

• This building is mine.
• That car is yours.
• These cars are made in Japan.
• Those cars are made in China. 

3. Distributive

Distributive determiners indicate a group or every member in the group. "Each", "every", "either", "neither", "half", "both", "all" are distributive determiners. "Each" and "every" talk about the individual members of a group. "All" collectively talk about the whole group. "Half" is used to talk about the group or quantity equally divided into two parts. When we want to refer to a group of two, we use "either" and "neither" and "both". 

• Each student in this class is meritorious.
• Each of the students is brilliant.
• Every student in this class is meritorious. 
• All members are happy.
• All of the students were in the class.
• Half of the students have passed the exam. 
• I gave him half of the mango. 
• Both my students are meritorious.
• Both boys are meritorious. 
• Both the boys are meritorious.
• Both of the boys are meritorious. 
• Either student is curious.
• Either of the students is curious. 
• Neither boy is sad.
• Neither of the boys is sad. 

4. Interrogative 

To formulate direct or indirect questions we use interrogative determiners. There are three interrogative determiners in English. They are what, which, and whose. 

• Which university are you studying at?
• What food do you want?
• What job do you do?
• Whose pen is it?

5. Intensifier

Some adverbs and adverbial phrases strengthen or weaken the meaning of other words. Some common intensifiers are "extremely", "very", "incredibly", "awfully", "dreadfully", "terribly" etc. 

• I am extremely happy. 
• She is very beautiful.
• I strongly oppose it. 
• They are really modern.
• She is pretty intelligent.
• You are quite happy. 
• This place is rather chaotic.
• This topic is fairly interesting.
• They are absolutely smart. 
• You are so smart.   

6. Quantifier

A quantifier sits before a noun and expresses the object's quantity, be it small  (a few, a little, a bit), large (many, much, a lot), or undefined quantity (any, some).  

"Few", "a few", "fewer", "many", "not many", "several", "both", "a couple of", "each" are used with countable noun. They are used with plural noun except each.

• I have many friends.
• I have a few friends.
• Not many tourists have visited our country. 
• Not many people in our country know the importance of education.
• Both players have contributed a lot. 
• I know each student of this college.

"Much", "less", "little", "a little", "a bit" of is used with an uncountable noun. 

• Not much milk is in the glass.
• Poor people need a bit of support from the rich and government. 
• There is a little milk in the glass. 
• I can finish my work in less time. 

"Lot of", "lots of", "plenty of", "a lack of", "enough", "no", "some", "all" can be used with both countable and uncountable noun.

• All players are from South Asia. 
• All milk has been brought from Sylhet. 
• I have enough pens.
• I have enough experience. 
• Lots of experience is required for the job. 
• I need a lot of apple juice.
• I need a lot of experience. 
• Lots of people are working there.
• Writing gives me lots of fun.  

7. Numerals

When a numeral, be it cardinal (one, two, three, etc.), ordinal (first, second, third, etc.) multiplicative (single, double, triple, etc.) or fraction (half, one-third, etc.) sits before a noun, it becomes numeral determiner.  

• I have three cars. (cardinal)
• I need eleven players. (cardinal)
• He is the first boy in the class. (ordinal)
• It is our third marriage anniversary. (ordinal)
• Mushfique made a double century yesterday. (multiplicative)
• Sehwag has two triple centuries. (multiplicative)
• Half of my salary is spent on house rent. (fraction)
• One-third of my salary is spent on meals and buying books. (fraction)
• He earns double his salary. (multiplicative)

Usage

Determiners come before an adjective (a beautiful lady) or only noun (a lady; many people) to form a noun phrase. We cannot use more than one main determiner side by side. The main determiners are article, demonstrative and possessive. So, in the presence of an article, you cannot use possessive; in the presence of possessive, you cannot use an article. Similarly, in the presence of demonstrative, you cannot use an article or possessive. They simply mutually exclude each other. 

Some determiners function as pre-determiners. They sit before the main determiner and you can use only one pre-determiner.

Post-determiner comes after main/central determiner. You can use more than one post-determiner.

Proper Order of Determiners 

in a Noun Phrase

You can use up to three determiners in a noun phrase. When you go to use more than one determiner, you have to follow the following rules.

We can choose

One pre-determiner

One main determiner

one or more than one post-determiners

Quantifier,

Intensifier,

Multiplier,

Fraction

Demonstrative

Distributive

Possessive

Article

Interrogative

ordinals

quantifiers, cardinals, general ordinals)

both, all

what, such, so, really, quite, pretty, absolutely, fairly, so, rather, strongly

twice, double, three times, five times

half, one-tenth

this, these, that, those

each, every, either, neither,

my, our, your, his, her, its, their

a, an, the

what, which, whose

first, second, third, next, last, final

one, two, three, single, double, triple, more, most, many, much, few, little

What

a

next

few

moments

five times

my

income

both

our

students

the

most

interesting matter

a

triple century

an

other

story

the

last

three

pages

those

last

three

pages

his

last

triple

century

many

students

much

experience

    You can watch the video on the proper order of determiners: 

         

   PARTS OF SPEECH  

   Sentence Structure    

   English Alphabet and Speech Sound

      H.S.C.: MODIFIER

      Dangling Modifier

      Misplaced Modifier

      SENTENCE CONNECTORS

   Back to Home Page