Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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Part of speech
or grammatical category:

Word, term
or idea:

Other notes on
class or type:

Level of difficulty
1 elementary
5 intermediate
9 advanced

Adjectives

Demonstrative

This and that, these and those

1 - 3

Explanation and discussion:

In English, there are several demonstrative adjectives, this, that, these, those, and the are the most commonly taught.

Unlike some languages with three forms, there are only two forms in English, one set that refers to things that are closer to me, this and these and the other that refers to things that are farther away from me, that and those.

Please remember that the first four listed above can also be demonstrative pronouns, and as a pronoun, they can take as antecedents nouns, phrases, clauses and even whole sentences.

The most important rules to remember are shown in the table below.

Example(s):

	For things closer to me	For things farther away
For one thing (singular)	Always use this	Always use that
For more than one thing (plural)	Always use these	Always use those

This steak is really tender.

That star over there is Betelgeuse.

These lessons are really easy; don't you agree?

Better watch out, those bees might come here and sting you.

Note(s):

Exercise(s):

Note: Due to a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you must click next question for the first question. This does not happen in Netscape. In any browser, click on the [a], [b] or [c] for the answer and the next question button to see the next question.

For this exercise, consider 7 or better "Great", 5 or better "Very Good", 3 or better "Good" and 2 or better "OK". Remember the score is RIGHT minus WRONG. Zero or less, please study some more.

Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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