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 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:
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.
Can you two complete
Here, 'that' is the object of the sentence
What have I done to deserve
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.
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!
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:
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.
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Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun is a word that substitutes a name to avoid repetition. Personal pronouns show us the grammatical person and gender of the name they refer to.
Subject Pronouns
Pronouns that are used in the position of a subject in sentences are called subject pronouns. In this article, you find all your answers about subject pronouns.
Object Pronouns
Pronouns that can take the place of an object are called object pronouns. In this article, you will get to know different kinds of object pronouns.
Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns are used to show that the subject and object of a sentence are exactly the same person or thing or there is a direct connection between them.
