Numerals and Determiners

Numerals and Determiners

Numerals are determiners when they appear before a noun. In this position, cardinal numerals express quantity:  
 

one book 
two books 
twenty books

In the same position, ordinal numerals express sequence:  
 

first impressions 
second chance 
third prize

The subclass of ordinals includes a set of words which are not directly related to numbers (as first is related to one, second is related to two, etc). These are called general ordinals, and they include last, latter,next, previous, and subsequent. These words also function as determiners:  
 

next week 
last orders 
previous engagement 
subsequent developments

 When they do not come before a noun, as we've already seen, numerals are a subclass of nouns. And like nouns, they can take determiners:  
 

the two of us 
the first of many

They can even have numerals as determiners before them:  
 

five twos are ten

In this example, twos is a plural noun and it has the determiner fivebefore it.