They vs. These or Those

personal pronouns demonstrative pronouns demonstrative determiners they these those

'These' and 'Those' are called plural demonstratives. We use them as determiners and pronouns. But are they interchangeable with the plural pronoun 'they'?

"They" vs. "These" or "Those" in the English Grammar

What Is The Difference between These and Those?

'These' and 'those' are called demonstratives. They can either be determiners or pronouns.
We use 'these' and 'those' to talk about things based on their position and distance. If the things are close to us, we use 'these'; and when they are far away from us, we use 'those'.

These and Those as Determiners

If we use 'these' and 'those' with plural nouns, they are determiners.

These flowers smell nice.

I want those shoes, not these ones.

These and Those as Pronouns

If we use 'these' and 'those' alone without them being followed by plural nouns, they are pronouns.

I've made my decision. Let's buy these!

Those are both good choices. But which ones do you choose?

Can 'They' Be Used as a Demonstrative, Too?

'They' can be used to demonstrate plural nouns at any distance or position. It can be a substitute for both 'these' and 'those'.
'They' can be the safest choice, because the distance is not relevant.

'What are these?' 'They' are my clothes.

Here, you can also say 'these are my clothes'.

'These' and 'those' alone (as pronouns) cannot refer to people unless maybe when you want to be offensive or sarcastic. They are always used to refer to things.

I want these. These shoes are better than the last ones.

These people are so nice and friendly.

This sentence is ok, because we used a noun after 'these'.

~~These~~ ~~are~~ so nice and friendly.

'These' alone cannot be used to refer to people.

They are so nice and friendly.

They can both refer to a group of people and animals and things.

They're beautiful. How much are they?

What Is Another Difference between These and Those with They?

Another difference between 'these' and 'those' with 'they' is that 'these/those' can be both subjects and objects in a sentence. But 'they' can only be the subject of a sentence.

I found these in the library. (NOT I found ~~they~~ in the library.)

Here, 'these' is the object of our sentence and we cannot replace it with 'they'.

How much are those apples? → How much are they?

They vs. Them

'They' and 'them' are both third-person plural pronouns and refer to plural nouns. But what is their main difference? Let's find out!

They, Singular or Plural

Is 'They' a singular or a plural pronoun? The answer to this question used to be so easy. We would've said yes. But it's more complicated than that.

They vs. Their

'They' and 'them' are both refer to a group of people, but they function differently in a sentence because they take different grammatical roles.

This vs. That

'This' and 'that' are singular demonstratives. 'This' is used to point to a noun being close to us and 'that' is used to refer to something far from us.

This vs. These

'This' and 'these' are both demonstratives. They point to a specific noun in a sentence. Here we will briefly look at their similarities and differences.

That vs. Which

In the English language, we have three main relative pronouns: who, which, that. Here, we will discuss the similarities and differences between the last two.