Demonstrative Determiners
Demonstrative determiners in English are this, these, that and those. They are used to identify the person or thing that is being referred to.
What Are Demonstrative Determiners?
A demonstrative determiner is a determiner that points to a particular noun or to the noun it replaces.
English Demonstrative Determiners
There are four demonstrative determiners in English:
A demonstrative determiner can tell us about the location of something relative to our position; they show us how near or far something is. Near and far can refer to distance or time.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| near to us (time-wise/distance-wise) | this | these |
| far from us (time-wise/distance-wise) | that | those |
How much are
Demonstrative Determiners vs. Demonstrative Pronouns
'This,' 'that,' 'these' and 'those' are both demonstrative determiners and demonstrative pronouns. The difference between them is:
- A demonstrative determiner always comes with a noun: that car, those people.
- A demonstrative pronoun always comes alone and is not accompanied by a noun, for example:
using 'those' as a demonstrative determiner
Someone left their shoes. Whose are
I want those glasses.
Review
Demonstrative determiners are such as demonstrative pronouns, the only difference between these two is that 'determiners' must be followed by nouns. Demonstrative determiners are picked based on their number and distance.
| Number | Distance | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| This | singular | close |
|
| That | singular | far |
|
| These | plural | close |
|
| Those | plural | far |
I don't know |
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