Determiners
Learn how to use determiners in English.
Can you answer these grammar questions correctly?
Articles
Point 1: Articles and determiners (a, an, the, some) come before nouns. They help us understand if we are talking about something specific or general.
- I bought a hat. (One hat, any hat)
- I bought an old hat. (One old hat, any hat)
- I bought the hat. (A specific hat we both know)
- I bought some hats. (An unknown number of hats)
Point 2: We use a or an when talking about something for the first time. We use an if the next word starts with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u).
- I have a bike. (The word "bike" starts with a consonant sound)
- I have a new bike. (The word "new" starts with a consonant sound)
- I have an apple. (The word "apple" starts with a vowel sound)
- I have an old bike. (The word "old" starts with a vowel sound)
Point 3: We use some to talk about uncountable nouns or plural nouns when the amount is not exact.
- I have some pain in my arm. (Pain is uncountable)
- She has some money for me. (Money is uncountable)
- We have some pets. (Pets is plural)
- I made some cookies. (Cookies is plural)
Point 4: We use the when both the speaker and the listener know which thing we are talking about.
- I got the drinks for the party. (We both know which drinks)
- I like the new cafe. (We both know which cafe)
- When is the meeting? (We both know which meeting)
- Who is the new guy at work? (We both know who is being discussed)
