Study materials
Imagine you are pointing. A thing in your hand and a thing across the room get different words in English.
This book is interesting.
That house is old.
There are only four such words, and they split along two lines: near or far, one or several.
Four words in two rows
Here is the whole system. It can be memorised in half a minute.
| One thing | Several | |
|---|---|---|
| Near | this | these |
| Far | that | those |
These shoes are new.
Those trees are tall.
You decide the distance yourself. What is in your hand is this. What is across the room is that. No exact metres are involved.
The agreement chain
A demonstrative never stands alone. Two more things change with it: the noun and the form of be.
This child is happy.
These children are happy.
Check the whole chain at once. If one word changed, all three have to change.
Before a noun and instead of one
These words can do two jobs. They stand in front of a noun, and they can replace it when the thing is obvious.
this phone, those students
This is mine. Those are expensive.
Introductions and phone calls are a special case. There it is always this, even when the person is right beside you.
This is my friend Mia.
Hello, this is Alex.
Not only about objects
This and that can point at a situation, an idea or a time. Nearness then stops being distance and becomes time.
This is a good idea.
That was a great day.
this week, that day
Questions are built exactly as with be: the form moves to the front. In the short answer, though, the demonstrative is not repeated.
Is this your bag? Yes, it is.
Are those your keys? No, they aren't.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is taking the singular for a plural.
this books → these books
The second is taking the plural for a single thing.
those car → that car
The third is repeating the demonstrative in the answer.
Yes, this is. → Yes, it is.
All three are caught by one question. How many things are there? That settles both the demonstrative and the form of be after it.
Try it right now
Point at two things beside you and two across the room. Name them in English, watching the number.
Then ask one question about a distant object and give the short answer to it.