Types of numeral determinants

A determinant is a type of word that accompanies a noun. Its main function is, as its good name indicates, to determine it, thus establishing relationships of specificity with respect to it. The determinants agree in gender and number with the name they determine, always. They also always occupy the same position with respect to the noun, that is, they precede it, placing themselves immediately before said noun. Determinants in Spanish can be of various types. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to focus our study on the types of numeral determinants.

The possessive numeral determiners are those determinants that are responsible for indicating the number of people, animals, things or places that there are or, the place that each one of them occupies with respect to a larger group.

For example, in the sentence Juan is my first child, "first" is a singular masculine determinant, which is located within the ordinal numeral determiners, since it expresses the order of the noun it accompanies in relation to a larger group; namely,

Juan is my first child It may mean that, in addition to Juan, I have two more children who would be in second and third position respectively in relation to the birth of Juan.

Well, in addition to the ordinal numeral determiners (first, second, third, fourth, etc) we also found three more types of numeral determinants in Spanish:

Cardinal numeral determinants

Those that indicate quantity. Pablo plays soccer on a soccer field near my house, "un" functions in this sentence as a cardinal numeral determinant that indicates the amount of something, in this case, soccer fields. Other examples would be two, three, four, five, six, seven, etc., and so on.

Multiple numeral determinants

Which indicate the number of times that the noun contains the same quantity. For example: I want a double portion of squid, "double" is a multiple numeral determinant because it indicates twice the same quantity.

Partitive numeral determinants

Those that indicate divisions or partitions within a larger set. A) Yes, Give me half cake indicates that you want half of the sweet, which would be the complete set of the dessert. Other examples would be a third, fourth, fifth, eleventh, twelfth, fifteenth, sixteenth, twentieth, etc.

Of the four groups, perhaps the least used are the partitive numeral determinants. However, the rest, the ordinal, cardinal, and multiples numeral determinants are very frequently used in our day to day, especially when establishing the price of the food or products that we buy or when measuring and dividing a whole into several parts.

The cardinal numeral determinants accompany us in our day to day almost without our realizing it. Likewise, ordinal numbers are also especially used in the world of sports and competitions in which the position in which you remain with respect to the rest of the participants, etc.

One of the closest examples is soccer: Madrid won the European Cup for the sixth time, O well Madrid came second in the knockout phase.