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Questions tagged [determiners]

Determiners are noun-modifiers that convey the reference of a noun without delineating its characteristics [as adjectives do].

Determiners are noun-modifiers that convey the reference of a given noun without delineating its characteristics [as adjectives do]. An example of a determiner would be 'both' in the following sentence:

  • Both doors were closed.

Or 'my' in this sentence:

  • I have injured my arm.

As you can see, determiners serve to put their respective nouns into context without saying anything of their features.

322 questions
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"That" vs "It" as Anaphoric Determiners

What are the specific uses and differences of "it" and "that" in anaphoric reference? Sometimes they can be used interchangeably and sometimes they can't. I am teaching back referencing as a conversational strategy next week, and I was trying to…
Acornrevolution
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Serial number/id/reference/label as noun postmodifier?

There are so many novel usages of references, IDs, keys, codes: If we substitute variable a in the equation (3) with string "ABC" at the address 0x801234 as pointed by Smith [SM2005] we might crash our database Prometheus located in the zone…
gavenkoa
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Why do people say 'this' instead of 'a', especially in spoken discourse?

For example, some people might say "I saw this man just now..." instead of "I saw a man just now...".
Nerd
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When is it okay to omit a determiner? (as in "Everything for baby")

A friend and I walked past a poster advertising BabiesRUs and the slogan was "Everything for baby". My friend said it's bad grammar and should include "your" or make "baby" into "babies". I disagreed but couldn't give a reasonable explanation as to…
Ryan Ashton
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Is “History of Flight” correct when referring only to one specific flight?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) writes incident and accident reports, mostly involving aircraft. In all their reports, there is a section titled “History of Flight.” That section gives background information on the aircraft, route,…
Charles Nicholson
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“A/An” deteminer preceding an adjective+noun combination in a question

I have a problem where I cannot decide on whether to use the a/an determiner or not in the following sentence. Do you have [a] healthy contact with your environment? If I remove the adjective healthy from the sentence, to me it is a no-brainer and…
Chris Rogers
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Omitting the determiner: "a peach cake or (a) cheesecake"

Can I omit the second determiner "a" in this sentence? Which would you like, a peach cake or a cheesecake? Is the determiner of cheesecake necessary to make the intended meaning of either a peach cake or a cheesecake?
H O
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How to identify a determiner in a sentence that uses 2 determiners

In the sentence, "This is a flower." How can we both say that the "a" refers to a general noun (flower), yet also account for the presence of the specific determiner, "this?"
user89615
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Determiner Problem

I wrote a sentence. "People play many dangerous sports. The sports can harm them a lot." In this sentence, "The sports" refers to "many dangerous sports" in my first sentence. But, Grammarly is identifying it as a mistake. Why? help me please
Kazi Abdul Mohite
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"the" vs "those" as determiners

I'm editing a draft of a formal speech written by a non-native English speaker in which "those" is repeatedly used as a demonstrative adjective/determiner. My instinct is to change these instances of "those" to "the", but I'm having trouble…
bigchomp
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Why is "these" preferred in academic writing to "those?"

for academic writing The drugs have other inactive ingredients such as galactose, rhodamine, and hexylene glycol. Exactly why these ingredients remain inactive has yet to be determined. Question: Why do we use "these" ingredients rather than…
Connie Rylance
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Do I need "the" when refer to something that has its name or label?

I get confused about academic writing. Is it grammatically correct to say: We will propose the X test. The equation (1) is used for solving the problem. The X test is defined in the equation (1). According to the equation (1), ... I would like to…
Jeff
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2 answers

Do we need to use 'the' here?

In 'the novel navigates present-day US' do we need 'the' before 'present-day US' as we would usually before 'US'?
huppuguga
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Why is it necessary to include determiners like "your" or "my" in some sentences?

Why is it necessary to include determiners like "your" or "my" in sentences with enough context to omit them? "Bob, eat your breakfast." "How do you like your eggs?" "I got my results back." "I'm driving in my car." I'm well aware that these words…
kronkiel
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behind a / the desk?

In the phrase 'in the field instead of behind a / the desk', would you use 'a' or 'the'? It seems to me that 'the' is the more sensible option, as English has other expressions of the 'the N' form which denote an activity associated with the object…
Apollyon
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