58c Use determiners appropriately.
Determiners are words that identify or quantify a noun, such as this study, all people, his suggestions.
COMMON DETERMINERS
- the articles a/an, the
- this, these, that, those
- my, our, your, his, her, its, their
- possessive nouns and noun phrases (Sheila’s paper, my friend’s book)
- whose, which, what
- all, both, each, every, some, any, either, no, neither, many, much, (a) few, (a) little, several, enough
- the numerals one, two, etc.
Some determiners, such as a, an, this, that, one, and each, can only be used with singular nouns; others, such as these, those, all, both, many, several, and two, can only be used with plural nouns. Still other determiners—my, the, and which, for example—can be used with singular or plural nouns. See the chart below for additional examples.
Determiners with singular count nouns
Every singular count noun must be preceded by a determiner. Place any adjectives between the determiner and the noun.
Determiners with plural count nouns or with noncount nouns
Noncount and plural count nouns sometimes have determiners and sometimes do not. For example, This research is important and Research is important are both acceptable but have different meanings.
Remembering which determiners go with which types of noun
The chart describes which determiners can be used with which types of nouns.
| These determiners… | …can precede these noun types | Examples |
| a, an, every, each | singular count nounssome proper nouns | a book, an Americaneach wordevery Buddhist |
| this, that | singular count nounsnoncount nouns | this bookthat milk |
| (a) little, much | noncount nouns | a little milkmuch affection |
| some, enough | noncount nounsplural count nouns | some milk, enough troublesome booksenough problems |
| the | singular count nounsplural count nounsnoncount nouns | the doctorthe doctorsthe information |
| these, those, (a) few, many, both, several | plural count nouns | these books, those plansa few ideasmany studentsboth hands, several trees |