What Is a Determiner?

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Among lists of parts of speech, you may see an unfamiliar word among nouns, verbs, conjunctions, and the other usual suspects. What’s a determiner?

A determiner is a word that modifies a noun or a noun phrase. That’s also the definition of adjective, but although both parts of speech modify nouns, determiners are distinct from adjectives in several respects, most obviously in that the latter express attributes, whereas determiners express relationship. (These categories also differ in that although the inventory of adjectives is innumerable, most types of determiners include a finite number of words.)

The categories of determiners include the following:

§ articles (a, an, and the)
§ possessive nouns (for example, John’s, wife’s in “my wife’s,” and doctor’s in “the doctor’s”)
§ possessive pronouns (such as hers and mine)
§ indefinite pronouns (like each, either, all, and fewer)
§ demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those, and such)
§ numbers (five, “a hundred,” and so on)

There are only three articles and five demonstrative pronouns, and the number of possessive and indefinite pronouns is also limited; only possessive nouns and numbers are limitless, but they are included with other determiners because their function is similar to that of the other types.

Note, however, that possessive nouns, by their very nature, require assistance from one of the other types of determiners. For example, some require an article (“the missile’s trajectory”), some need a pronoun (such as the possessive pronoun our, as in “our house’s address sign”), and some are accompanied by a number (“three players’ uniforms”).

Two similar classes of words are quantifiers and predeterminers. A quantifier, as the name signifies, expresses how much or how many of something exists or exist. This type, sometimes considered another variety of determiner and sometimes placed in its own category, consists of words and phrases that indicate quantity, such as few, all, or “a couple of”; numbers are sometimes classed with these general quantifiers. (Quantifiers can be combined with other determiners, such as in “their many detractors” or “all the bottles.”)

Some quantifiers work with count nouns but not with mass, or noncount, nouns (“many horses,” but not “many water”); others are used only with mass nouns (“little water,” but not, in the context of quantity rather than size, “little horses”). Others are suitable for both count and mass nouns (“some horses,” “some water”). 

Predeterminers, as the name indicates, refers to words that precede determiners. These include multipliers and fractions (for example, twice and one-half, or just half, in “twice my size” and “one-half of his fortune”) and intensifiers (for example, quite and rather in “quite the scholar” and “rather more people than I expected”).

10 Functions of the Comma

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A comma is a versatile punctuation mark, serving ten basic functions. Here’s an enumeration, with examples.

1. Separate the elements in a series: “Groucho, Harpo, and Chico developed the philosophy called Marxism.”

Many periodicals and websites, and most colloquially written books, omit the serial, or final, comma, but it is all but mandatory in formal writing and is recommended in all usage. As language maven Bryan Garner observes, “Omitting the serial comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will.”

2. Separate coordinated independent clauses: “I like the Marx Brothers, but she thinks they’re too silly.” (An independent clause is one that can stand on its own as a sentence but is linked with another by a conjunction and/or a punctuation mark.)

Exceptions include sentences with closely linked clauses (“Go to the window and see who’s there”) and those with a compound predicate (“The Marx Brothers are known for their puns and their sight gags”).

3. Separate an introductory word (“Naturally, I agree with you”), phrase (“Last summer, I went on a long vacation”), or subordinate clause (“If you’re too busy now, wait until later”) from the remainder of the sentence.

4. Separate an optional parenthetical element from the remainder of the sentence. “We have, in a manner of speaking, won despite our loss.” (The phrase “in a manner of speaking” could also be set off by em dashes or parentheses, depending on whether the writer wishes to emphasize the interruption of the statement “We have won despite our loss” or wants to diminish it as an aside.)

5. Separate coordinate adjectives from each other: “I could really use a tall, cool drink right now.” (Do not separate noncoordinate adjectives with a comma.)

6. Separate an attribution from a direct quotation: “She said, ‘Neither choice is very appealing’”; “‘That’s not my problem,’ he replied.” (A colon may be precede a formal pronouncement or an attribution that forms a complete thought, as in, “He had this to say: ‘Her point is irrelevant.” Omit punctuation when the attribution is implied, as in “Your response ‘Her point is irrelevant’ is evasive.”)

7. Separate a participial phrase or one lacking a verb from the remainder of the sentence: “Having said that, I still have my doubts”; “The deed done, we retreated to our hideout.”

8. Separate a salutation from a letter (“Dear friends,”) or a complimentary close from a signature in a letter (“Sincerely,”). A colon should be used in place of a comma in a formal salutation.

9. Separate elements when setting off a term for a larger geopolitical entity from that for a smaller one located within it (“Santa Barbara, California, is located on the coast”) and for elements of street addresses (“1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC”) (and dates (“January 1, 2013”).

10. Separate groups of three digits in numbers: (Let me tell you how to make your first 100,000,000 dollars.” (Because large numbers are difficult to scan, it’s usually better to use one of the following forms: “100 million dollars,” “one hundred million dollars.”)

10 Tips About How to Write a Caption

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If you contribute to production of a print or online publication that includes photographs or illustrations, you’re likely, at some point, to write captions. Here’s some advice about how to write good ones.

1. Caption copy must match the tone of the running text (the general written content, as opposed to display type such as headlines and captions). Determine whether captions should be formal or informal, or serious or humorous, or whether the tone can vary depending on circumstances.

2. Caption format will depend on various factors. Portraits (often referred to as headshots), or images of places or products can simply be captioned with a name: “John Smith,” for example, or “Deluxe Dual-Purpose Widget,” without terminal punctuation. (If the product caption is a description rather than an official product name, capitalize only the first word and proper names.)

Captions for photos or other images showing events or occurrences can consist of incomplete sentences (“Taking the Inchworm personal-transportation device for a test drive”), but it’s generally better to use one or more complete sentences. (“John Smith takes the Inchworm personal-transportation device for a test drive.”) Avoid eliding words, as in “John Smith takes Inchworm personal-transportation device for test drive”; write the caption as if you were speaking it aloud, not as if you were writing a headline or dictating a telegram.

Some publications use a lead-in phrase to establish the caption; these are either straightforward or may be conceptual and might be humorous and/or alliterative as well. They are often formatted in boldface and followed by a colon, and they generally are capitalized like headlines. (“Wiggle Wagon: John Smith takes the Inchworm personal-transportation device for a test drive.”)

3. A brief article can be formatted as a caption; it’s best to distinguish such special features with a box around the photo and caption and/or a different font treatment. (A headline is optional.) The extent of the block of type shouldn’t be less than the space taken up by the photo, and the caption should be broken up into paragraphs if it’s more than a few lines long, and perhaps divided into columns if the image is more than one column wide.

4. Use context to determine how thoroughly to identify photographic subjects. Because a person, place, or thing shown in a photo is almost invariably identified in accompanying running text, titles, affiliations, and other additional information, for example, are rarely required in captions. Subsequent photos of the same subject can be simplified (as when a person’s full name is used only in the first of several captions for photos featuring that person).

5. Avoid replicating content from the running text in a caption. The caption should allude to the running text’s topic, but the specific wording should at most paraphrase the running text.

6. Captions should not use judgmental or facetious language or make assumptions about, for example, a subject’s state of mind. (Of course, a publication that features humorous or satirical content is an exception.)

7. If more than one person is featured in the photo, use directional or other targeting terms (for example, “left,” “standing,” or “holding aardvark”) only if the distinction between the photo’s subjects is not obvious. If you must use such wording, be consistent about style and format. Here are some alternatives (the first of which trusts readers to assume left-to-right orientation):

“Security guards Winken, Blinken, and Nod stand watch.”
“Security guards Winken (left), Blinken, and Nod stand watch.”
“Security guards Winken, left, Blinken, and Nod stand watch.”
“Security guards (from left) Winken, Blinken, and Nod stand watch.”
“Security guards (left to right) Winken, Blinken, and Nod stand watch.”

8. Avoid tired terminology. If, in a photo accompanying an article about a cash donation, a person is pictured pointing at an oversized mockup of a check, don’t write, “Charity Goodheart gestures at a giant check as Greedco chairman Rich Moneybags looks on.” (And ask yourself why your company or organization is publishing such a tired visual cliché in the first place.) Simply write, “Charity Goodheart acknowledges a donation from Greedco chairman Rich Moneybags.”

9. Fact-check all quantitative information such as spelling, names (of people, places, and things) and titles, and data, and double-check that you describe action or procedures accurately.

10. Don’t forget to include credits, and be consistent in style and format. Acknowledge the photographer or stock-photography source with the name alone; there’s no need to write “photo by” or the like. (However, if a photo is provided without charge by another source, credit, for example, “Courtesy Lookatthis.com.”) Distinguish the credit from the caption by using another font or point size and/or placing it vertically along the right-hand edge of the image.

Use a Dash for Number Ranges

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Which symbol should be used with numbers: a hyphen (-), or an en dash (–)? The question may seem trivial — a dash is a dash, right? — but using the correct symbol aids comprehension, just as commas and semicolons signal distinct grammatical structures, and no one will argue that those two punctuation marks can be used interchangeably.

Hyphens are used to separate groups of numbers, such as in telephone numbers or numbers of financial accounts. But for almost all other cases, the correct punctuation mark is an en dash, which indicates a range or a difference.

A span of years (such as “2009–2012”) or any other time range includes an en dash. (And note that “from 2009–2012” and “between 2009–2012” are incorrect; either use both from and to, or between and and, or neither.) The same treatment is given to a sequence of components, such as a range of chapter or page numbers or amounts (for example, “chapters 1–10” or “250–300 pages”).

A range of monetary amounts — and any other amounts — is also represented this way, as in “Salary range: $75,000–$80,000.” (Note that when expressing a range with very large numbers, to avoid confusion, the first number should not be abbreviated; for example, “$75–$80,000” means “from $75 to $80,000,” not “from $75,000 to $80,000.”)

Two contexts that cause confusion about which dash to use are scores and votes. These are not, technically, ranges, because nothing exists between them, as in the case of “2009–2012,” in which that time span includes 2010 and 2011 as well, and of “chapters 1–10,” which also includes every page between 1 and 10. But The Chicago Manual of Style, reasoning that the symbol between the numbers represents a difference between two values (and that the symbol is pronounced to), has elected to use en dashes for both types of representation.

Therefore, use an en dash to indicate scores for sports or other competitions (for example, “Her team won 6–3” or “They came back from behind to chalk up a 97–92 victory”). Note, however, that when a score does not immediately follow a verb or precede a noun, as in the examples above, it should be set off from the rest of the sentence by one or two commas: “East prevailed over West, 97–92”; “East prevailed over West, 97–92, for the league championship.” Win-loss records should also be formatted with an en dash: “The team went on to earn an 8–4 record.”

Votes are treated the same way: “The city council approved the project with a 5–2 vote.”

Many newspapers and websites follow the style recommended by the Associated Press Stylebook, which is to simply use a hyphen in place of an en dash. That preference presumably dates from the lead-type era, when compositors didn’t want to be bothered about trying to distinguish a – from a – on a piece of metal the size of a watermelon seed. Last time I noticed, however, producing an en dash was a simpler task. Dare to dash.

Are Tense Shifts Advisable?

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Should all verbs in a sentence be consistent in tense? Tense shift is often essential, but it’s sometimes unnecessarily discouraged.

See, for example, this sentence: “I thought I’d seen the last of him, but here he comes again.” The shift in tense is natural; to revise the beginning to “I thought I’ve seen . . . or “I think I’ve seen . . .” or “I thought I saw . . .” is not necessary (though they’re all defensible), but I think the original is the best choice.

A reader recently alerted me to a questionable assertion about this topic in a writing handbook. In an otherwise sensible passage advising against unnecessary shifts in tense, the guide took exception to this passage:

“Naming the five best movies of last year was easy. Ninety percent of the movies I see are lousy, and that leaves only a handful that are even worth considering.”

The recommended revision follows:

“Naming the five best movies of last year was easy. Ninety percent of the movies I saw were lousy, and that left only a handful that were even worth considering.”

I disagree with that solution. The second sentence, I think, is perfectly acceptable as is: The first sentence establishes that an action was taken in the past. The second one shifts to make a related observation that is true now, at the moment the statement is written and at the moment when it is read. No cognitive dissonance occurs.

Past tense can, alternatively, be introduced into the passage, but not to the extent shown in the handbook’s revision. Here’s the compromise alteration:

“Naming the five best movies of last year was easy. Ninety percent of the movies I saw are lousy, and that left only a handful that are even worth considering.”

This version retains the backward glance at the creation of the list but suggests that the writer’s evaluation about the quality of films is perpetual; the ninety percent of films he or she saw are lousy and, to the reviewer, will always be lousy, and only a handful are and will be worthy of consideration.

Here’s another example:

“He said it made sense for his clients to self-publish through the agency instead of going directly to Amazon themselves, because the agency brought experience in marketing and jacket design.”

What the person found sensible is presumably something that is and will always be sensible, so the stated strategy “makes sense,” not “made sense”; the latter phrase implies that the strategy was sensible at one time but may no longer be so. This introduces an ambiguity of comprehension.

Similarly, the agency’s experience in marketing and jacket design is presumably a steady state, so the final clause should include the phrase “brings experience.” The point is not that, at one time, the agency provided an advantage; it is that the agency continuously provides the advantage.

Hence my recommended revision:

“He said it makes sense for his clients to self-publish through the agency instead of going directly to Amazon themselves, because the agency brings experience in marketing and jacket design.”

5 Examples of Proper Style for Proper Nouns

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A proper noun, also known as a proper name, is capitalized to indicate that it denotes a unique entity or phenomenon. Many entities or phenomena are widely known by their names. Sometimes, however, writers misunderstand or misrepresent the label. Here are five examples of proper nouns that illustrate the importance of verifying precise nomenclature and considering the context in which it is used.

1. Big Ben
This is the official nickname, specifically, of the bell in the Elizabeth Tower, the iconic structure often used as a visual shortcut to identifying London in photographs, on television, and in films. (The tower, previously called simply the Clock Tower, was renamed in 2012 in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.) However, popularly, the phrase generally refers to the clock in the tower or the tower itself.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This US government agency’s official name is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it retains the initials, CDC, of its previous designation, the Centers for Disease Control; note that the first word is plural. (A similar example is the name of the National Institutes — not Institute — of Health.)

3. Halley’s Comet
The technical name for this peanut-shaped orbiting body roughly the size of a big-league Himalayan mountain is Comet Halley. (actually, 1P/Halley is its astronomy-catalog designation.) Because of its relative familiarity, however, due to unusually frequent reappearances (roughly every seventy-five years), it is also called Halley’s Comet.

The traditional pronunciation among astronomers rhymes with alley, but, perhaps as a result of contamination from the name of the seminal rock-and-roll band Bill Haley and the Comets, most laypeople pronounce it to rhyme with daily. (No one knows how discoverer Edmund Halley pronounced his name, but I’d give the odds to the stargazers’ convention.)

4. New York
The largest US city is popularly called New York (the official name is “the City of New York”), but writers should determine whether, depending on the context, it should be referred to as New York City to distinguish it from New York State. (In this designation, and in “Washington State” — so as not to confuse the state with Washington, DC — state is capitalized even though it’s not part of the state’s official name.)

5. Sierra Nevada
The name of the mountain range forming the backbone of California — a name shared by several other ranges throughout the world — from the Spanish phrase meaning “snowy mountains,” should not be pluralized with the letter s, and “the Sierra Nevada Mountains” is partially redundant. (The same is true of the truncation “the Sierras”; call it “the Sierra.”)

Many other geographical designations are redundant: Fujiyama translates as “Mount Fuji”; the words sahara, gobi, and negev all mean “desert”; and the first word in “Rio Grande,” as well as Avon and Don — the names for rivers in England and Russia, respectively — means “river.” Although it’s not wrong to use the word mount, desert, or river before or after the name of a geographic feature that means “mountain,” “desert,” or “river,” the common noun can often safely be omitted (for example, “Fujiyama,” “the Sahara,” and “the Rio Grande”). Note, too, that river, when it precedes a river’s name (for example, “the river Nile”), is always descriptive and not part of the name.

“Size” Matters

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How do you treat the word size (or is it sized?) when it’s used in combination with other words as an adjective? Here’s a rundown of the options, with judgments about the best bets.

The combination of mid with size is treated in various combinations: as midsize, mid-size, midsized, and mid-sized. The most prevalent form, logically — following the tendency to omit hyphens after prefixes and because omitting the second d is simpler than retaining it — is midsize. Medium-sized, however, prevails over medium-size; the hyphen is to be expected, because medium is an entire word, not just a prefix, like mid, but the retention of the final d is puzzling.

Midsize is the adjective of choice for vehicles, while medium-sized is much more likely to apply not only to entities such as businesses and organizations but also to most other products and objects.

And how should references to comparatively small or large phenomena be styled? Some people would follow the pattern by writing small-size or small-sized, or large-size or large-sized, but -size or -sized is redundant because small and large provide a frame of reference to the quality being discussed, whereas medium is vague enough to require the contextual clue of -sized, even when small and/or large are also employed in the passage. (A range should be rendered as follows: “Small to midsize cars were tested” or “The survey applied to small to medium-sized businesses.”)

Words for bed sizes are expressed as, for example, king-size or king-sized. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, probably the most widely consulted dictionary in the publishing industry, notes that king-size is prevalent, which is consistent with its entries for similarly constructed words, include bite-size, legal-size, life-size, man-size, plus-size, pocket-size, in which the -sized form is regarded as a variant.

Similar terms, such as those in the sentences as “We watched a car-size boulder tumbling down the slope” or “A house-size depression appeared in the field,” can be created as needed. However, writers should take care in producing such constructions with less common references. “He approached the brick-size object as it hovered in front of him” is reasonable, because although bricks vary in size, most readers will probably think of the typical red clay building material. But “a dog-size creature” is vague because of the disparity of size among dog breeds, and “a cell phone–size device” may seem awkwardly constructed. (Try “a device the size of a cell phone” instead.)

Answers to Questions About Apostrophes

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Here are three questions from readers about use of apostrophes to mark possession or plurality, followed by my responses.

1. When I have a list of people who all possess something, how do I handle the apostrophe(s)? Which of the following sentences is correct?:

“Today is John, Mary, and my second anniversary with the company.”

“Today is John’s, Mary’s, and my second anniversary with the company.”

“Today is John, Mary’s, and my second anniversary with the company.”

“Today is John’s, Mary’s, and my second anniversary with the company” is correct, because the possessive (or, more accurately, genitive) function of my covers only itself, and each of the names needs its own possessive markers — they can’t share one. (Even “Today is John and Mary’s second anniversary with the company” works only if they joined as a single unit; by contrast, “Today is John and Mary’s second wedding anniversary” is correct because it implies that they united as a couple.)

2. Which of the following options regarding the apostrophe s is correct?:

“This view of Smith regarding the relation between rationality and social contexts is inspired by Marx’s philosophy.”

“This view of Smith’s regarding the relation between rationality and social contexts is inspired by Marx’s philosophy.”

The apostrophe plus s is correct: This is an example of the possessive, or genitive, case; the view “belongs” to Smith, so it should be treated as if you wrote “Smith’s view . . . .” (One could also write, “This view from Smith . . .,” but the possessive form reads better.)

3. Recently, there was a headline in the Los Angeles Times that read, “The what if’s of Iraq.” Is the apostrophe in if’s correct?

No. It should read, “The what ifs of Iraq” (or, better yet, what-ifs), just as one would refer to more than one no as nos (not no’s) and a list of recommendations as “dos and don’ts” (not don’t’s). The editors probably thought that “what ifs” looks odd, but they violated the rule “Minimize exceptions”: They wouldn’t (one hopes) insert a second apostrophe in don’ts, so why put an extraneous one in “what ifs”?

Terms for the Seasons of the Year

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Words for the seasons and related terms often have both literal and figurative connotations. Here are the words and their various senses.

Spring (from the Old English word springan, akin to the same word in Old High German, which means “to jump”) has a sense of freshness and growth. The word is sometimes used to refer to a sociopolitical movement for greater freedom and tolerance, as in phrases like “Prague Spring” and, more recently, “Arab Spring.”

Spring itself, in these senses, has no direct adjectival form besides springlike; springy refers to the word’s sense of movement. However, vernal (from the Latin word ver, meaning “spring”) is suitable for references to anything pertaining to the spring, or anything fresh, new, or youthful. In a practical sense, it often refers to phenomena unique to springtime, such as a vernal pool, a body of water that dries up as summer encroaches on spring.

Summer (from the Old English word somer) has associations with thriving and mature growth, and it is also a poetic synonym for years in references to one’s age (for example, “in my tenth summer,” “a boy of fifteen summers”). Summery is a prosaic descriptor term describing qualities associated with summer. Estival (from Latin aestivus, meaning “of summer”) also means “pertaining to summer”; estivation is the summertime equivalent of hibernation, or sojourning at one location all summer.

Autumn (ultimately from the Latin word autumnus), interchangeable in literal meaning with fall, has a figurative sense pertaining to full maturity or the onset of decline, as does the adjective autumnal. Winter has associations with decay and inactivity, and wintry, besides its literal sense, refers to being weathered as a result of winter weather or as if by such conditions, or to being aged; it also suggests a cold attitude or response.

Solstice (ultimately from the Latin word solstitium, meaning, literally “sun standing”) and equinox (from the Latin term aequinoctium, a combination of the terms for “equal” and “night”) refer to the times of the year when, respectively, daylight is shortest and day and night are of equal length.

The adjective equinoctial (or equinoctal) refers literally to the first day of spring and fall and has no established figurative meaning. (The first variant is also used as a noun synonymous with equator or referring to a storm during the equinoctial period.) There is no adjectival form of solstice, which corresponds to the onset of summer and winter.

4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

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A gerund is one of three classes of words called verbals — words based on verbs and expressing an action or a state of being but serving another grammatical function. (The other two are participles and infinitives.) A gerund, which functions as a noun, can consist of a single word or a phrase.

The four types of gerunds and gerund phrases follow:

1. Subject
Gardening is my favorite hobby. (Gardening is normally a verb, but here it is the name of an activity.)

Gardening in the summertime is a challenge because of the heat. (The gerund is followed by a modifying adverbial phrase, forming a gerund phrase.)

2. Direct Object
My neighbors admire my gardening. (The admiration is not for the action of gardening, but for the results of the action.)

I am enjoying my gardening this year. (The direct object of the subject is “my gardening this year.”)

3. Object of Preposition
I have received several awards for my gardening. (The awards have been given for the results of the activity.)

Some people consider my interest in gardening an obsession. (The gerund phrase is “gardening an obsession.”)

4. Subject Complement
My favorite hobby is gardening. (Again, gardening is described as something done, not the act of doing it. The statement is the inverse of the first sentence in this group; here “My favorite hobby” is the subject, and gardening is its complement.)

I do my gardening in the morning. (The phrase “gardening in the morning” is the subject complement.)

Confusion with Present Participle Phrases
If a sentence resembling one of these statements includes a comma, it’s likely to contain a present participle phrase, not a gerund phrase. For example, the sentence “Gardening in the summertime, I built up a resistance to hot weather” contains a present participle phrase, which includes a participle, a verb functioning as an adjective or an adverb.