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.

Demonstrative Pronouns in English Grammar

What Are Demonstrative Pronouns?

When we want to point out a specific person or thing, we use demonstrative pronouns. We have four demonstrative pronouns in English as listed below:

	Close	Far
Singular	This	That
Plural	These	Those

When Do 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:

This is my hat on the floor.

This is your wallet.

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:

That is my mom standing over there.

That is my pencil.

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:

These books are Martha's.

Don't touch these CD's! They're mine.

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:

Those are my candles.

Those clouds are beautiful.

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:

This is an apple.

Those are dirty.

Here, the demonstrative pronoun is used as the subject and has come at the beginning of the sentence.

Can you two complete that?

Here, 'that' is the object of the sentence

What have I done to deserve this?

Demonstrative Pronouns and Verbs

These demonstrative pronouns can be used with all verbs. The singular pronouns (this and that) are used with singular verbs, while the plural pronouns (these and those) are used with plural verbs.

This is my one and only friend.

Here, the sentence is about one person so the singular form of the 'to be' verb is used.

Those are my books over there.

As you can see, this sentence is about a group of things so the plural form of the 'to be' verb is used.

We can also turn these structures into questions and negative forms. Look at the examples below:

Those are not my students.

This isn't my tutor.

Are these our video clips?

Is that a cat?

As you can see, by changing the places of the subject and verb we can make questions using demonstrative pronouns.

Warning!

Note that when demonstrative pronouns are followed by a noun, they function as determiners and are no longer considered pronouns. In such cases, the determiner agrees in number with the noun it modifies. Compare the examples below:

This cat isn't mine.

As you can see, 'this' is followed by a noun which makes it a determiner.

That is my cat.

Here, 'that' is the subject and is functioning as a demonstrative pronoun.

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What Are Demonstrative Pronouns?
How They Function in Sentences
Demonstrative Pronouns and Verbs

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