Los determinantes son palabras
como the , my , this , some , twenty , each , any , que se usan antes de los
sustantivos. Los determinantes incluyen los siguientes tipos comunes:
Articles: a,
an, the
Demonstratives:
this, that, these, those
Possessives: my,
your, his, her, etc.
Quantifiers: (a)
few, some, many, etc.
Numbers: one,
two, three, etc.
¿Qué hacen los determinantes?
Los determinantes tienen dos
funciones principales: referir y cuantificar.
Referente
Referir
significa mostrarnos a quién o qué está apuntando o hablando el sustantivo. Los
tipos más comunes de determinantes que usamos para referirnos son artículos,
posesivos y demostrativos:
Where’s the newspaper?
B: It’s on the sofa.
(the means the noun refers to something the speaker and listener both know or
are familiar with)
A: Have you seen my MP3
player anywhere?
B: Yes. It’s on the
kitchen table. (my refers to something which belongs to the speaker; the refers
to something the speaker and listener can both identify because they both know
or share knowledge about it.)
Do you want this bag or
are you going to put it in that box? (this refers to something near the
speaker; that refers to something further away.)
Charles is looking for his
dictionary. Have you got it? (his means the noun refers to something belonging
to a male, in this case, Charles.)
Cuantificando
'Cuantificar' significa
mostrar cuánto hay de algo, o cuántos:
Five
people were arrested during an anti-war demonstration in London today.
There are some letters
here for you. (some means a non-specific, small number or quantity of
something.)
Do you have enough
flour to make the bread. (enough means a quantity that is sufficient or
adequate for something).
