Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm really glad you've chosen to join me today to learn all about determiners.

Now, you might not have heard that word before, but I promise you that you use determiners every single day.

So in this lesson, we're going to find out what they are and how we use them.

We've got lots to learn, so let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called "Determiners, Articles, and Possessive Pronouns," from our unit review of determiners, prepositions, and fronted adverbials.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to use an article or a possessive pronoun to introduce a noun in a clause.

Now, some of these things we're learning today are things we already do without thinking about them, but we're going to be able to learn today the words we use to describe them correctly and to think a bit more carefully about how we use them in our writing.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Determiner.

Noun.

Article.

And possessive pronoun.

Well done.

Let's look at those keywords in a bit more detail.

A determiner is a word that introduces a noun in a clause or phrase.

A noun is a naming word for people, places, or things.

An article is a type of determiner that shows how specific the noun is that's being introduced.

And a possessive pronoun is a type of determiner that shows that a noun belongs to another noun.

Let's look at our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start by identifying different types of determiners, and then we're gonna move on to using those determiners in some writing.

Let's get going.

Now, we can tell the word class of a word by thinking about what it does in a sentence.

And by word class, we mean the type of word we're talking about.

So we all know that a noun is a naming word for people, places, and things.

And I'm sure you remember that an adjective describes a noun.

It tells us what it's like.

So for instance, in this sentence, "As the dark clouds gathered, we put on our waterproof coats," we can see these words, clouds and coats are common nouns, they're things.

And the words dark and waterproof describe those common nouns, so they're adjectives.

Dark describes clouds and waterproof describes coats.

They tell us what it's like, so dark and waterproof are our adjectives.

Can you identify the adjectives and the nouns they describe in these two sentences? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

In A, we can see the adjective, dark describes the noun, Earth.

The adjective glittering describes the noun treasure.

The adjective ordinary, in B, describes the noun, day, and the adjective, exciting describes the noun, adventure.

Really well done if you spotted all those pairs.

Another word class is a determiner.

And these are words that introduce a noun in a clause of phrases.

Here are some simple sentences made up of one clause.

We landed on the island, where can I buy a bicycle? What is your weight? I'm taking my medicine now.

Each of these simple sentences contains a noun.

Island, bicycle, weight, and medicine are all nouns.

And each of these nouns is introduced by a determiner: the island, a bicycle, your weight, my medicine.

These are the determiners that introduce the noun.

And determiners help us to determine which noun we are talking about.

We are talking about the island, a specific island.

Where can I buy a bicycle? Any bicycle.

What's your weight? I'm talking about the weight that you have.

And I'm taking my medicine, the medicine that belongs to me.

The determinants help us to show which noun we are referring to.

So what do determinants do? Pause the video and decide which is the correct option.

Well done, I'm sure you remembered that it is C.

Determiners introduce nouns in a clause or a phrase, well done.

Now, there are several different types of determiners in the English language.

One type is an article.

And our job is easy here, because there are only three articles in the English language: a, an, and the.

These are articles which come before the noun they introduce.

We could go to the library or we could go to a cafe.

The island, which grew lots of fruit, was surrounded by an ocean.

Can you see how each article in purple comes before the noun it introduces? The library, a cafe, the island, an ocean.

Can you find all the articles in these sentences? Remember, we are looking for just three words in the English language here.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

In A, we can see the and an.

In B, we've got the and a.

And in C, we've got a and the.

Now, sometimes we'll find one or two adjectives between the article and the noun it introduces.

Let's look at some examples.

I glimpsed a small rectangular package under the tree.

As the pale moon rose, I gazed up in awe.

We could buy an ugly, old car, or we could buy this new one.

Can you see how in each example, we have an article, and then one or two adjectives, and then the noun that the article was introducing? So here we've got the adjectives, small and rectangular between our article, a, and our noun, package.

Here, we've got the adjective pale between our article, the and the noun, moon.

And here we've got the adjectives, ugly and old, between our article, and, and our noun, car.

So can you find the articles and the nouns they introduce? You should see two pairs in each sentence.

So you'll see an article and a noun, but they might be separated by some adjectives.

So I want you to see if you can spot the pairs of articles and nouns in each sentence.

Pause the video and have a try.

Great effort, that was tricky.

So in A, you should have seen a run, separated by those adjectives, short, intense.

And then we've got the, and exercise, separated by the adjective, best.

In B, we've got the and guide separated by the adjective, experienced, and then a, and resident, separated by local.

In C, we've got the and creature separated by strange and unpleasant, and then an and noise, separated by that adjective, awful.

So we can see, even when there's adjectives in the way, we can still spot the articles and the nouns they introduce.

Another type of determiner that also introduces nouns in a clause or phrase is a possessive pronoun.

There are several different types of possessive pronoun in English, but these are the ones which are determiners.

My, your, his and her, their, its, and our.

And possessive pronouns show us who the noun belongs to.

Here are some examples.

He came to our house.

The dog ate its bone.

Her homework is complete.

The possessive pronoun, our introduces the noun, house, to show it's our house.

The possessive pronoun, its introduces the noun, bone, to show that the bone belongs to the dog.

And the possessive pronoun, her, introduces the noun, homework to show that the homework belongs to her.

So these possessive pronouns all function to show us who the noun they're introducing belongs to.

Just like with articles, we can find adjectives between the possessive pronoun and the noun it introduces.

As I wheeled my rusty, old bicycle through town, I whistled.

Will you be showing your best behaviour today? Their rich, famous uncle visited when he could.

So I can see I have the possessive pronoun, my linking to, introducing that noun, bicycle.

But we have the adjective, rusty and old in between.

I've got the possessive pronoun, your linking to the noun, behaviour, with the adjective best in between.

And I've got the possessive pronoun, their linking to the noun, uncle, with the adjectives, rich and famous in between.

Okay, I wonder if you can now identify the possessive pronouns which are determiners in these sentences.

Pause the video, read the sentences, and find those possessive pronouns.

Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, we have the possessive pronoun, their.

In B, we have two possessive pronouns.

We have our and its.

And in C, we have the possessive pronoun, his.

Now, can you identify the nouns that these possessive pronouns introduce? Pause the video again and try and spot the nouns that are introduced by the possessive pronouns we've just identified.

Great effort, well done, let's take a look.

Their introduces the noun, breath.

Our introduces house, and it introduces lead.

His introduces the noun behaviour.

Really well done if you spotted all those connections.

Now, let's complete our first task of this lesson.

I want you to try and identify the determiners in each of these sentences.

You're going to label any articles with A, any possessive pronouns with PP.

And I'd like to circle the nouns that each of them introduces.

Here are our sentences.

As I listen to the beautiful, moving song, my eyes filled with tears.

Earth, which is our home planet, is not a perfect sphere.

Her heart was pounding when the vital game went to penalties.

And an ordinary person would've given up, but my dad is not ordinary.

So, label articles with A, possessive pronouns with PP, and then circle the nouns each of those determiners introduces.

Pause the video and have a try.

Okay, let's take a look.

In number one, we have the article, the introducing the noun, song.

We have the possessive pronoun, my, introducing the noun, eyes.

In two, we have the possessive pronoun, our, introducing planet, and the article, A introducing sphere.

In number three, we have the possessive pronoun, her introducing the noun, heart.

And we have the article, the introducing the noun, game.

And finally, in four, we have the article, an introducing the noun, person and the possessive pronoun, my introducing the noun, dad.

Really, really well done.

If you've managed to spot all those determiners and the nouns they introduce, because remember, the function of a determiner is to introduce a noun in a sentence.

We've done a great job identifying determiners so far.

Now we're going to move on to using determiners in our writing, let's go.

Now, one thing we need to know in our writing is when do we use the article, an, and when do we use the article, a? And there's a special rule we can follow to help us.

When the word after the article starts with a vowel sound, we always use an.

Now, we know that the vowel letters in English are A, E, I, O, and U.

And when the word after the article starts with one of those letters, we can always use an as the article.

An armoured tank, an elephant, an iridescent bird, an opening in the wall, an upside-down hat.

Those words after the article start A, E, I, O, and U, so we can use an.

But the reason our rule says that we use an when the word after the article starts with a vowel sound, not just one of these letters, is that there are a couple of tricky examples.

Look at this one, an honest woman.

Now, honest starts with H, which is not a vowel letter, but in that word, the H is silent.

So the word honest starts with a vowel sound.

It starts with, ah.

So we use an.

So whenever the word after the article starts with the letter A, E, I, O, or U, we can use an, but also if it's a vowel sound, which has a slightly different spelling, like this silent H.

In every other case, we just use a as the article.

Here are some sentences with some gaps where an article could be placed.

I'd like you to decide whether each gap should use the article a or the article an, remembering our rule we've just learned.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, the gap comes before the noun break.

Break starts with the letter B, so we know we need to use the article, a.

In B, the gap comes before awe-inspiring, which starts with the letter A, and we know we can use the article, an before the letter A.

In C, the gap comes before the words emerald green.

Emerald starts with the letter E, so we're going to use an as the article again here.

And in D, we've got the gap before the word dreadful, so here the word starts with a consonant, D.

It doesn't have any vowel sound, so we're going to use the article, a.

Really well done if you've got those articles correct.

Now, we also need to know when to use the article the, and when we use a or an.

We use a or an when we aren't talking about a specific noun.

For instance, will you put this in a bin? We're not talking about a specific bin.

We don't mind which bin it goes in.

We just want it to go in any bin.

But we use the when we're talking about a specific noun.

Will you put this in the bin? Maybe I'm referring to the bin in the corner of the classroom.

It's a specific thing which I'm talking about.

So we use the for specific nouns, a or an when we're not being so specific.

For instance, I think there's a mouse in the house, versus I think the mouse has escaped from its cage.

In the second example, I know which mouse I'm talking about.

In the first example, I don't know the mouse, because it's in the house somewhere.

I'm not sure if it's there, I'm not sure which mouse it is.

So I'm using a to refer to it.

In this example, I've said we need to get to a hospital as soon as possible.

I don't mind which hospital.

It's not important in my sentence, which hospital I'm getting to, I just need to get to any hospital.

But in this one, I've said I have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow, because I know which hospital I'm going to, because I've planned it in advance.

So I'm talking about a specific hospital in that sentence.

I need to decide here whether the, a, or an is the best article to use in each sentence.

Pause the video and have a go.

So for A, I would say I wish I had a pet of my own.

I wouldn't say I wish I had the pet of my own.

That wouldn't make sense.

For B, I would say, "As she lay on the floor, she dreamed of circus mice." We're talking about a specific floor.

I wouldn't say as she lay on a floor.

For C, I would say, "Mum phoned the school to see if I had behaved myself." Mum knows which school I go to.

She's talking about a specific school there.

And in D, I would say, "Alex wondered if there would be an egg for lunch." I wouldn't say, "Alex wondered if there would be the egg for lunch," because Alex isn't worried about whether he's eating a specific egg.

He's worried about eating an egg, any egg.

Really well done if you noticed those differences.

Now, when we are writing, we need to choose the right determiner to help us to introduce a noun in a clause.

Sometimes it'll be an article and sometimes it'll be a possessive pronoun.

Here are some examples with a gap in them where we could put a determiner.

As I walked past, I gave the man blank spare change.

Blank door, which was bolted, was old and damaged.

And we wanted to stay at blank house, but it was getting late.

Now, there might be several options for determiners that we could use in these gaps.

Let's look at some examples.

I could say, "As I walked past, I gave the man my spare change." For number two, I could say, "Our door, which was bolted, was old and damaged." But I could also say, "The door, which was bolted, was old and damaged." So there, I used a possessive pronoun first, our, and then an article, the.

For number three, I could say, "We wanted to stay at his house." Or I could say, "We wanted to stay at their house." Or I could say, "We wanted to stay at the house, or even at your house." I've used possessive pronouns and articles there to introduce that noun, house.

I would advise you to think, what sounds right? Because we can often tell just by hearing the determiner, whether we've used the right one or not.

So I would be saying each sentence out loud to check, does my determiner sound right? So, I've got some sentences here with gaps in them before a noun.

I want you to choose an appropriate determiner for each gap.

Maybe it's an article, maybe it's a possessive pronoun.

Maybe either would work in your gap.

Pause the video and decide what could work in each gap.

Have a go.

Okay, now, here are some suggestions.

I'm saying suggestions because you might have chosen slightly different determiners to me.

I could have said, "We threw the dog a ball, but it wanted its bone." For B, I could say, "When we get to the beach, can I use your sun cream?" And for C, I could say, "Because it was cold in our house, we drove to my grandma's place." But you might have chosen slightly different determiners, because sometimes lots of different ones will make sense in our sentence.

Really well done for your effort there.

Now, we can also complete a clause with our own ideas, introducing a new noun using a determiner that we've been given.

Let me show you what I mean.

As I strode into the room, I slammed the.

So I've been given the determiner, the, and now I'm going to choose a new noun to finish off the sentence.

I could say, "Slammed the heavy door behind me." But I could also say, "Slammed the money down on the table." For this sentence, I've been given the determiner, his.

The wizard tried to disappear, but his." And I'm thinking, hmm, how could I finish that with a new noun? I could say, "But his spell failed miserably.

But his oak wand was broken." And in this one, I've got the determiner, your, a possessive pronoun.

I've said, "You need to work hard or your." And I could finish off with, "Handwriting won't improve, or strength will not increase." So I've used that determiner to introduce a new noun and to complete the sentence.

And we can see the new nouns I've introduced here.

Door, money, spell, wand, handwriting, and strength.

So can you think of a way to complete each clause by introducing a new noun, using the determiner you've been given? And I put those in green for you there, our, a, and the.

So pause the video and decide how you could complete each sentence.

Have a go.

Here are some ideas.

I could say, "We got our coats and bags." I could say, "The guy had led us through the jungle to a vast temple." And I could say, "She is very important because she is the head teacher." Each time, I've added at least one noun.

And in B, I've added that adjective, vast as well, to complete the sentence.

We can also use a determiner to introduce a new noun into a relative complex sentence.

And if you remember, that's a sentence which has a main clause and a relative clause.

So I've got here, my cousin who has a blank, works very hard.

The main clause there would be, my cousin works very hard.

We are going to add in a new noun into that relative clause in the middle to complete the sentence.

So I could say, "My cousin, who has a well-paid job, works very hard." I could say, "My cousin, who has a brand new car, works very hard." I could say, "My cousin, who has a beautiful house, works very hard." Each time, I've got that main clause here, my cousin works very hard, interrupted by that relative clause, where I've used that article, a, and then I've introduced a noun, job, car, and house.

And I've got adjectives in the middle there, as well: well-paid, brand new, and beautiful.

So can you complete the relative clause in this sentence by introducing a new noun, using the determiner you've been given? Miss Ofoedu, who is my blank, helps me a lot.

What could that new noun be? And maybe you'll put an adjective as well.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, let's take a look.

I could say, "Miss Ofoedu, who is my favourite teacher ever, helps me a lot." I could say, "Miss Ofoedu, who is my mom's best friend, helps me a lot." I could say, "Miss Ofoedu, who is my school's newest teacher, helps me a lot." Each time there, I've used a noun, teacher, friend, and teacher again.

And I've used adjectives as well, like favourite, newest, and best, to complete that relative complex sentence.

So here's our final task for this lesson.

I want you to use the determiners you've been given in these sentences to introduce a new noun in each sentence and complete the clause.

Here are our sentences.

You can see the determiners in green: our, my, a, the, your, and its.

So we've got a mixture there of possessive pronouns, like our and my, and articles, like a and the.

So you're going to pause the video, complete each sentence by introducing a new noun, and completing the clause.

So all of ours will sound different for this task.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, here are some example sentences.

I've said, "When the sun set, we got into our cosy sleeping bags." For number two, I said, "Jim wants to play football with me, but my swollen ankle meant I couldn't." For number three, I said, "As we stepped forward into the dim cave, we saw a family of bats flapping towards us." For number four, I said, "The mountain in which was the highest in the area was over 800 metres high." And for number five, you can give it to me or you will lose your break time.

And lastly, the dog, which wanted its squeaky toy, was whining loudly.

Really well done if you've managed to add in a noun, using that determiner you were given.

Really well done in this lesson.

We've used some very tricky terminology.

We've done a great job of pushing through and learning some new information.

So let's summarise what we've learned.

We've learned that determiners are words that introduce nouns in clauses or phrases, and the articles are one type of determiner.

We've learned that possessive pronouns are another type of determiner, and that the determiner always comes before the noun introduces.

But there may be adjectives in between the determiner and the noun.

Really well done for your effort today.

I can't wait to see you again in a future lesson.

Goodbye.