Demonstrative Pronouns for intermediate learners
A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun mostly used to point to something based on its distance from the speaker. In English, these pronouns have four forms.
What Are Demonstrative Pronouns?
When to We Use Them
This
When we want to point out a single object or a person close to us, we use 'this'. Look at the examples below:
Here, the sentence is referring to an object near the speaker.
That
When we want to talk about an object or a person that is far away from us, we use 'that'. Look at the examples below:
These
When we want to refer to a group of things or people that are close to us, we use 'these'. Carefully study the following examples:
Don't touch
Those
When we want to refer to a group of people or things that are far away from us, we use 'those'. Look at the examples below:
How They Function in Sentences
These demonstrative pronouns can be used as both subjects and objects in sentences. They can replace a subject noun or an object noun. Carefully study the examples below:
Here, the demonstrative pronoun is used as the subject and has come at the beginning of the sentence.
These demonstrative pronouns can also be used as objects in sentences. Look at the following examples:
Can you two complete
What have I done to deserve
Demonstrative Pronouns and Verbs
These demonstrative pronouns can be used with all verbs. The two singular ones are used with the singular form of the verb and the two plural ones are used with the plural form of the verb. Pay attention to the following examples:
Here, the sentence is about one person so the singular form of the 'to be' verb is used.
As you can see, this sentence is about a group of things so the plural form of the 'to be' verb is used.
Are
Is
As you can see, by changing the places of the subject and verb we can make questions using demonstrative pronouns.
Warning!
Remember that when these demonstrative pronouns are followed by a noun, they are no longer called demonstrative pronouns. They will be determiners. Compare the examples below:
As you can see, 'this' is followed by a noun which makes it a determiner.
Here, 'that' is the subject and is functioning as a demonstrative pronoun.