This, That, These, Those
Level A1 · Sentence Basics
Demonstratives point to things and show two things at once: how many (singular or plural) and how far away (near or far). This and that are for one thing; these and those are for more than one.
The four forms:
- near + one → this (this book, here in my hand)
- near + more than one → these (these books)
- far + one → that (that book, over there)
- far + more than one → those (those books)
They work in two ways: before a noun as a determiner (this car, those houses), or alone as a pronoun (This is my car. Those are expensive.).
The most common mistake is not matching the number: this cars and these car are wrong — this goes with a singular noun (this car), these with a plural noun (these cars). Learners often use this for everything because their own language may not change the word for plural, but English always does.
Use this/these for things near you in space or time (here, now, what you are about to say) and that/those for things further away (over there, earlier, what was just said). On the phone, you say this is… about yourself and who's that? about the other person.