Demonstrative Pronouns

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    1 Demonstrative Pronouns: THIS, THESE, THAT, THOSE

    As the name suggests, demonstrative pronouns demonstrate something. In English we divide them into two groups:

    A) The speaker is close to what he/she is pointing to or is speaking about. He/she can say it’s “here”:

    a) The speaker is talking about one thing/person (singular number) – THIS

    • This apple

    b) The speaker is talking about more than one thing/person (plural number) – THESE

    • These apples

    B) The speaker is not close to what he/she is pointing to or speaking about. It is further away:

    a) The speaker is talking about one thing/person (singular number) – THAT

    • That apple

    b) The speaker is talking about more than one thing/person (plural number) – THOSE

    • Those apples

    As you can see, with these pronouns we do not distinguish whether it is masculine, feminine, or neuter. Look at these examples:

    Demonstrative PronounsUse in the Sentence
    ThisThis is my car
    TheseLook at these flowers!
    ThatThat house is ours.
    ThoseWho are those people?

    Demonstrative pronouns can appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence:

    • This is my friend.
    • Look at this!
    • What is this song?
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    She completed her master's degree at the Faculty of Education, Charles University, specializing in English language, music culture, pedagogy, and social pedagogy. She has many years of experience in language teaching in the Czech Republic, USA, Indonesia and Germany. She works as a methodologist and coordinator of language courses in ONLINE learning, where she leads a team of lecturers and the creation of language courses for more than 137 000 students. Vendula follows the motto: “Learning should be fun, because if we enjoy what we do, then it makes sense”.