Determiners for classes 6 - 10

Determiners

·       Determiners fall in the category of adjective.

·       It specifies, determines, or points out a noun.

·       It is placed in front / against a noun.

Kinds of Determiner :

1. Articles – a, an, the

        Definite : the

        Indefinite : a, an

‘A’ is used with the nouns starting with consonant sound.

 e.g. a girl, a one eyed man, a one rupee note, a European, a university

‘An’ is used with nouns starting with vowel sound.

 e.g. an egg, an elephant, an honest boy, an F. I. R., an M . L. A., an MBBS, An HR executive

Usages of ‘The’

1. ‘The’ is used for specific nouns or particular thing/person being talked about.

e.g. The book you want is out of print.

2. When a singular noun is meant to represent a whole class

e.g.  The cow is a useful animal.

        The rose is the sweetest of all flowers.

3. With names of gulfs, rivers, seas, oceans, islands and mountain ranges, great books, epics, nouns which are unique of its kind

e.g.  the Ganges, the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, the Himalayas, the Red Sea, the Ramayana, the Vedas, the sun, the earth

4. Before a proper noun when qualified by an adjective

e.g. The great Caesar, the Ashoka, Akbar the great

5. With superlatives :

e.g.  the best, one of the most, the tallest building

6. With comparatives when used as adverb :

e.g. The more, the merrier.

        The harder you work, the happier you will become.

        The more you get, the more you want.

Omission of article 'the' - 

1. 'The' is not used with names of people, city, country, mountain peaks

e.g. Rohan, Monisha, Mumbai, India, Japan, Mt. Everest

2. 'The' should be avoided if used many times in a sentence.

 

2. Possessive adjective : my, our, his, her, your, their, its (answer of whose)

Difference between Possessive adjectives & Possessive Pronouns

Possessive adjectives	Possessive pronouns
My	Mine
Our	Ours
Your	Yours
His	His
Her	Hers
Their	Theirs
Its	Its

For example –

My son is honest.

His melodious voice stole everyone’s heart.

Your handwriting is illegible.

I didn’t know about their friends.

3. Demonstrative adjective : this, that, these, those, such

Demonstrative adjective	Demonstrative pronoun
This book is mine.	This is my book.
That one is yours.	That is yours.
These children are very noisy.	Those were your friends.

4. Adjective of Quantity : (used with uncountable nouns) much, more, some, enough, little, less, any, no, sufficient, a lot of

It give answer of 'how much'.

e.g. There is some milk left in the tumbler.

        I have sufficient money with me.

        He doesn’t have much time to win the race.

5. Adjective of Number : (used with countable nouns) one, two, third, five, first, second, last, some, few, any, many, more,  all, no, several, a lot of

It give answer of 'how many'.

e.g. There are some students practising on the stage.

        Many students are absent today.

        I don’t want to attend last period.

6. Distributive Adjective : each, every, either, neither

e.g. Each child has got the chocolate.

Every work is equally important.

Every day is a new day.

Neither of my friends has done this.

You may do it either way.

7. Interrogative Adjective : whose, what, which

Note : how – manner, why – reason, where – place, when – time are adverbs, hence, cannot be adjectives.

Examples :

Whose car is this?

Which gift do you want?

What time did you reach?

Exercises :

I.

a. ________ friends stopped talking to him.

b. I want __________ children to participate in the competition.

c. You don’t have __________ right to do this.

d. Can you speak ____________ louder?

e. __________ of them is my friend.

II.

There are many means of entertainment in the present time. The circus is one of  (a)  _________ most entertaining media. (b) ______________ Sunday some of (c) ________ friends went to see the Diamond Circus. (d) _________ uncle took us there. (e) _________ person was to pay for the ticket.

III.

(a) ___________  summer, I had one of  (b) _________  most memorable trips. At Rameshwaram we visited (c) ____________  ancient temples which gave us (d) ____________  idea about (e) ____________  glorious past. It added          (f) ______________ to (g) ______________ knowledge.

Video on Determiners

Answers I

a. his                b. all                c. any              d. little    e. none

Answers II

a. the               b. last              c. my               d. my               e. Each

Answers III

a. last               b. the               c. the               d. an                e. our

f. much    g. our