From Gerald Erichsen,
Your Guide to Spanish Language.

Definition: A type of word that refers to a noun and determines which object, person or other entity the noun represents. Determiners are usually classified as a type of nondescriptive adjective, and with the exception of numbers they have little meaning apart from the nouns they refer to. Types of determiners include articles (such as "a" and "the" in English, un and el in Spanish), possessive adjectives (such as "their" and su), numbers (such as "three" or tres), demonstrative adjectives (such as "that" or este) and quantifiers (such as "many" and muchos).

In both Spanish and English, determiners invariably precede the nouns they refer to (although sometimes an adjective intervenes). It is possible to use two determiners with a single noun if the second determiner is a number or quantifier (as in "the many Cubans" or los muchos cubanos).

Also Known As: determinante in Spanish

Examples: Boldfaced words are determiners: Read the comments of some students in the following chapter and identify which problem each one has. (Lee los comentarios de algunos estudiantes en el siguiente capítulo e identifica qué problema tiene cada uno.)