Determiners — Test Set 3

“little sugar” — ‘Sugar’ is an uncountable noun. Use little (not ‘few’, which is only for countable nouns).

“any help” — Negative sentences use any, not ‘some’. Correct: “I don’t need any help, thank you.”

“Every student was present today.” — ‘Every’ takes a singular noun (‘student’) and a singular verb (‘was’).

“its paw” — Its is the possessive determiner (no apostrophe). ‘It’s’ = ‘it is’ (contraction), which is incorrect here.

“an honest and an upright man” — ‘Honest’ starts with vowel sound /ɔ/ (h is silent); ‘upright’ starts with vowel sound /ʌ/. Both need an.

Demonstrative determiner: placed before a noun — “This book is mine.” [1 mark]
Demonstrative pronoun: stands alone, replacing a noun — “This is mine.” [1 mark]
Key rule: if followed by a noun → determiner; if standing alone → pronoun.

‘A’ and ‘an’ are called indefinite because they refer to any one member of a group — not a specific or already-known one. [1 mark]
Example: “I saw a dog” = any dog, not a particular one. Contrast: “I saw the dog” = a specific, known dog. [1 mark]

“The” IS used with: rivers (the Yamuna), oceans/seas (the Arabian Sea), mountain ranges (the Himalayas), groups of islands (the Andaman Islands). [1 mark]
“The” is NOT used with: individual mountains (Mt. Everest), countries (India), continents (Asia), single lakes (Chilika Lake). [1 mark]

“I saw a dog” — first mention; dog is not yet known to the reader; use indefinite article ‘a’. [1 mark]
“The dog was barking” — second mention; the specific dog just mentioned; use definite article ‘the’. [1 mark]
Rule: first mention → a/an; subsequent mention → the.

“either” = one or the other of two (positive possibility): “Either road leads to the city.” / “You can take either side.” [1 mark]
“neither” = not one and not the other of two (both excluded): “Neither team scored.” / “Neither answer is correct.” [1 mark]

Table of all 7 types of determiners:

1. Articles | a, an, the | I saw a cat. / The cat was black.
2. Demonstrative | this, that, these, those | This book is mine. / Those birds are eagles.
3. Possessive | my, your, his, her, its, our, their | My bag is heavy. / Their plan worked.
4. Quantifiers | some, any, many, much, few, little, all, enough | I need some water. / Many students passed.
5. Numerals (Cardinal) | one, two, three… | I have three pencils.
6. Numerals (Ordinal) | first, second, third… | She came first in the race.
7. Distributive | each, every, either, neither | Each student got a prize.
8. Interrogative | which, what, whose | Whose bag is this?

[½ mark per type; award 4 marks for all correct entries]

(1) One / Every / That — Numeral / Distributive / Demonstrative
(2) some / the — Quantifier / Article
(3) our / the — Possessive / Article
(4) an — Article (indefinite, vowel sound)
(5) a / the — Article
(6) Each / All / One — Distributive / Quantifier / Numeral
(7) an — Article (indefinite, vowel sound ‘idea’)
(8) her / the — Possessive / Article
(9) some — Quantifier
(10) The — Article (specific, second mention)

[Accept suitable alternatives; award ½ mark per blank × 10 = 5, capped at 4 marks]

Corrected passage:
“Every student has submitted their homework. I don’t have any idea about this topic. Neither of the two answers is correct. She has little patience. This information is incorrect. He is an honest boy.”

6 Corrections:
1. “Every students have” → “Every student has” — ‘every’ → singular noun + singular verb.
2. “some idea” (negative) → “any idea” — negative sentences use ‘any’.
3. “Neither…are” → “Neither…is” — ‘neither’ → singular verb.
4. “few patience” → “little patience” — ‘patience’ is uncountable; use ‘little’.
5. “These informations are” → “This information is” — ‘information’ is uncountable; cannot be pluralised.
6. “a honest” → “an honest” — ‘honest’ has a silent ‘h’ → vowel sound → use ‘an’.
[1 mark per 2 correct corrections, total 4 marks for all 6]

Sample paragraph:
Last Sunday, my [possessive] family and I visited the [article] weekly market near our house. Every [distributive] stall was full of colourful goods. We saw many [quantifier] fresh vegetables at a [article] vegetable stall. I asked, “Which [interrogative] tomatoes are fresh?” This [demonstrative] market is very popular in our area. Some [quantifier] shopkeepers greeted us warmly. The buyers carried their [possessive] own bags.

[Award marks based on correct use and labelling of all 8 required determiners: the, a/an, some, many, this, their, every, which. Deduct marks only if a determiner is missing or incorrectly used. Award 4 marks for all 8 used correctly and labelled.]

“few”:
(a) Meaning: almost none; negative feeling (unfortunately not enough).
(b) Used with: countable plural nouns.
(c) Examples: “She has few friends” (sadly, very few). / “There are few apples left.”

“a few”:
(a) Meaning: some; positive feeling (enough or satisfactory).
(b) Used with: countable plural nouns.
(c) Examples: “She has a few friends” (good, some friends). / “A few students came early.”

“little”:
(a) Meaning: almost none; negative feeling (not enough).
(b) Used with: uncountable nouns.
(c) Examples: “There is little milk in the glass.” / “He has little time to spare.”

“a little”:
(a) Meaning: some; positive feeling (enough).
(b) Used with: uncountable nouns.
(c) Examples: “There is a little milk left” (enough). / “She needs a little help.”

[1 mark per pair (few/a few and little/a little), with examples correctly demonstrating meaning and noun type. Total 4 marks.]