Definition & Meaning of "determiner"

What is a "determiner"?

A determiner is a word that introduces a noun and provides information about specificity, quantity, or possession. Determiners help to clarify which noun is being referred to in a sentence. Common examples include articles like "a," "an," and "the," which indicate whether a noun is general or specific. Other types of determiners include possessive words like "my" and "their," which show ownership, and quantifiers like "some," "many," or "few," which indicate quantity. For example, in the phrase "the dog," "the" is the determiner that specifies which dog is being discussed. In English, determiners always appear before the noun, and their use may differ in other languages, where they might have different forms or rules for agreement with the noun they modify.