Tag: determiners in english

Possessive Determiners

Possessive Determiner

A determiner used in front of a noun to express possession or belonging, e.g. my book, his coat, our house, your car, its colour, their culture.

The possessive determiners in English are my, your, his, her, its, our and their.

Possessive Determiners are sometimes called Possessive Adjectives or Possessive Pronouns.

They are called Possessive Adjectives as they are used with nouns and do the work of adjectives, e.g.

This is my pen.

 Those are your pens.

That is his pen.

In the following sentences the words in italics are Possessive Pronouns:-

This notebook is mine.

Those notebooks are yours.

That notebook is hers.

That plan of yours is wonderful.

Demonstrative Determiners

Demonstrative Determiners

Demonstrative Determiners are used to indicate things or people in relationship to the speaker or writer in space or time.

This, that, these, those are the Demonstrative Determiners in English. 

This and these indicate nearness to the speaker, as in –

This is a beautiful drawing.

These chocolates are for you.

That and those indicate distance from the speaker, as in –

That girl is very smart.

Those flowers, over there, are beautiful.

This and that are used before singular countable and uncountable nouns, e.g.

This pen is expensive. (Countable noun)

This water is dirty. (Uncountable noun)

That boy is handsome. (Countable noun)

That rice is good. (Uncountable noun)

These is plural of this.

Those is plural of that.