Determiners

A determiner is a small word that comes before a noun. It does not describe the noun; it tells you which one, whose, or how many. In 'a cool breeze', 'cool' describes; 'a' is the determiner.

Articles: a, an, the.

• a/an for something not mentioned before: 'He saw a large tree.'
• the for something already known: 'The shade was cool.' (We now know which tree.)

Demonstratives point: this, that, these, those. 'But this year turned out to be different.' Near → this/these; far → that/those.

Possessives show whose: my, our, your, his, her, its, their. 'Velu felt a cool breeze on his back.'

Numbers:

• definite: exact amounts (one, two, three): 'the first season in five, no, six years';
• indefinite: vague amounts.

Indefinite amounts, exactly:

• some: in positive sentences ('some astrologers');
• any and no: in negatives and questions ('without any such consultations', 'still no rain');
• all: the whole lot;
• much: with uncountable nouns (much water); many: with countable nouns (many conditions);
• several: more than two, but not many.

Watch this pair:

• little (not much) and few (not many) sound negative;
• a little and a few sound positive.

'Velu looked at her, a little puzzled' = somewhat puzzled. 'Little puzzled' would mean hardly puzzled at all.

Distributives single things out:

• each: one by one, individually;
• every: all of them together ('every day they hoped');
• either: one of two;
• neither: not one of the two.