DeterminersIntroductionDeterminers are little words that go with nouns and set them in context, words like a, the, my, this, which, some, several. You won't find the word determiner in older grammar books. Half of what we now call determiners used to be a separate class, the articles. The other half, even though they work in the same way as articles do, used to be lumped in with adjectives. So we had "real" adjectives and also things called demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives, etc. Modern grammarians and linguists make a clear distinction between adjectives and determiners, because they have different sorts of meanings and different uses. Adjectives tell us about the qualities of the thing referred to (red cells, a blinding flash). Determiners set the thing in context. In the following text, note a spine, These bones, some muscles, The snake, its muscles, their turn.
TypesThe most common determiners are the Articles (le, la les, un, une, des, du), which you will be studying next if you're a beginner. Other categories are as follows. If you are just starting out, don't click on the links yet. We'll get to them all later. Do, however, try to learn as many of these little determiners as you can in the next few weeks. They are everywhere.
Note that the English words above do not correspond exactly to the French words given because of differences in the way number and gender are dealt with in the two languages. Explanations are given on the relevant pages. The determiner, along with the adjective, usually indicates whether
a noun is singular or plural, masculine or feminine. In other words,
it indicates Number and Gender.
This means that most determiners have several different forms.
Exercises
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