determiners and quantyfiers

Determiners are words which come at the beginning of the noun phrase.

They tell us whether the noun phrase is specific or general.

Determiners are either specific or general

Specific determiners:

The specific determiners are:

• the definite article: the
• possessives: my, your, his, her, its; our, their, whose
• demonstratives: this, that, these, those
• interrogatives: which

We use a specific determiner when we believe the listener/reader knows exactly what we are referring to:

Can you pass me the sauce please?
Look at those lovely cats.
I bring  your letter.
Whose pencil is this?

General determiners:

The general determiners are:

• a; an; any; another; other; what

When we are talking about things in general and the listener/reader does not know exactly what we are referring to, we can use a uncount noun or a plural noun with no determiner:

Milk is very good for children. (= uncount noun)
 money and education are very important. (= 2 uncount nouns)
Girls normally do better in school than boys. (= plural nouns with no determiner)

… or you can use a singular noun with the indefinite article a or an:

A woman was trapped  in a broken building.
A man climbing nearby saw the accident.

We use the general determiner any with a singular noun or an uncount noun when we are talking about all of those people or things:

It’s very fun. Any child laughs loudly. (= All children laugh)
With a full licence you are allowed to drive any car.
I like beef, lamb, chicken. - any meat.

We use the general determiner another to talk about an additional person or thing:

Would you like another glass of juice?

The plural form of another is other:

I spoke to John, Helen and a few other friends.

Quantifiers

We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of something: how much or how many.