Grammar 101: Demonstrative Pronouns
Last time, as you might recall — unless you were too busy eating a potato, we looked at personal pronouns.
Today, we’ll look at demonstrative pronouns.
In simple terms, a demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:
- something that is nearby in distance or time 👉 this, these
- something that is far away in distance or time 👉 that, those
This and that are singular; these and those are plural.
Here is a useful chart from our friends at Woodward English:
These examples illustrate how demonstrative pronouns are used:
- These (over here) are more comfortable than those (over there).
- This (over here) is not as sweet as that (over there).
- That (over there) is truly beautiful. It is much nicer than these (over here).
- Can you tell me why you think that (over there) is better than any of these (over here)?
- Those (back then) were the days!
- These (over here) are the best I’ve seen all day.
- Have you read this (the thing I’m pointing at or holding up)?
- This (the one I’m reading now, or the one I’m pointing at) is my favorite chapter.
⚠️ Do not get demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives mixed up. 🙅 They are not the same. As you’ve seen, demonstrative pronouns stand and act on their own. Demonstrative adjectives modify nouns.
Here is the difference between demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives:
- That is terrific. (demonstrative pronoun)
- That song is terrific. (demonstrative adjective + noun)
- This cheeseburger is delicious. (demonstrative adjective + noun 🍔)
- That song is terrific. (demonstrative adjective + noun 🎧)
Normally, we use demonstrative pronouns for things only. But we can use them for people when the person is identified. We can see this in action in the following examples:
- This is Henry speaking. Is that Peter?
- That sounds like Nan.
This concludes this article. (That sentence used both a demonstrative pronoun and a demonstrative adjective.)
Until next time. That’s all, folks.
Next week, we’ll cover possessive pronouns.
