Determiner

Determiners are words which modify nouns. These include attributive adjectives, articles and quantifiers. Note that many languages lack one or more of these types of determiners.

In most Indo-European languages, determiners are either independent words or clitics that precede the rest of the noun phrase. In other languages, determiners are prefixed or suffixed to the noun, or even change the noun's form. For example, in Swedish bok "book", when definite, becomes boken "the book" (suffixed definite articles are common in Scandinavian languages).

In some constructions, such as those which use the names of school subjects ("Physics uses mathematics"), a determiner is not used. This condition is called the "zero determiner" instance.

X-bar theory contends that every noun has a corresponding determiner. In a case where a noun does not have a pronounced determiner, X-bar theory hypothesizes the presence of a zero article.

English determiners

• Articles: a, an, the
• Quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every
• Possessive adjectives: her, his, its, my, our, their, your
• Demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, those

See also: English grammar