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Demonstrating How to Use
Demonstratives |
From VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.
Have you ever wondered about the differences between the
words this, that, these and those?
These words are called demonstratives. Demonstratives
tell who or what you are talking about. They are often a
source of confusion for English learners, because other
languages use demonstratives in different ways than
English does.
Demonstratives can act as pronouns or as determiners. A
pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun or noun
phrase.
A determiner is a word that comes before a noun and is
used to show which thing is being referred to. In the
second sentence of this story, you heard these as a
determiner, when I said “These words are called
demonstratives.”
Pronouns
As pronouns, demonstratives identify or point to nouns.
This points to an object that is near to you in space,
thought, or time. The plural form of this is these.
Here are two examples:
"This (in my hand) is my pen."
"These (people standing near me) are my friends."
That points to an object that is comparatively far from
you in space, thought, or time. The plural form of that
is those.
So, for example, you could say
"That (in your hand) is your pen."
"Those (people standing far from me) are my friends."
Demonstratives can serve as a signal for a noun phrase
or take the place of a noun phrase. Here are two
examples. In the first example, these acts as a
determiner, while in the second example these acts as a
pronoun.
Demonstratives in popular music
Demonstratives are common in speech, writing and even
popular songs.
For example, in “My Favorite Things,” a song from the
famous film “The Sound of Music,” the singer lists the
objects that she loves. In the last line, she refers to
these objects by singing, “These are a few of my
favorite things.”
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things.
In the song, these refers to raindrops on roses,
whiskers on kittens, kettles, mittens and packages.
Common problems:
Determiners give information about whether a noun is
general or specific. Demonstrative determiners tell you
that the noun or noun phrase is specific.
You use a specific determiner when you know that the
person who is reading your writing or listening to you
knows what you are referring to. In other words, you
have a clear antecedent.
In the song “My Favorite Things,” the antecedents are
the objects that the singer lists before she says,
“These are a few of my favorite things.”
In the book Rhetorical Grammar, Martha Kolln writes that
if you do not use demonstratives to refer to a clear
antecedent, such as a noun phrase, your writing loses
clarity.
Take, for example, the following sentence:
The subject of the second sentence -- that -- refers to
the whole idea in the first sentence.
When this or that refers to a broad idea, Kolln writes,
you can usually improve your sentence by turning the
pronoun into a determiner. In other words, you can use a
complete noun phrase in place of the demonstrative
pronoun. So, for example, you could improve your
sentence by writing:
My friend just told me she is going to quit her job.
That decision came as a surprise.
By adding a noun, such as “decision,” to the sentence,
you can make it easier for your reader to understand
what you are referring to.
The next time you are writing or speaking, ask yourself
if the demonstrative that you are using has a clear
antecedent. If you have to think about it, then your
reader or listener will probably have a difficult time
understanding what you mean!
I'm Jill Robbins.
And I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this story for Learning English.
Kathleen Struck was the editor. |
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Words in This Story |
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demonstrative -
grammar. showing who or what is being
referred to
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determiner - n.
a word (such as “a,” “the,” “some,” “any,” “my,” or
“your”) that comes before a noun and is used to show
which thing is being referred to
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comparatively - adv.
when measured or judged against something else
- refer
- v. to have a direct
connection or relationship to (something)
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antecedent - n.
grammar. a word or phrase that is represented by
another word (such as a pronoun)
- clarity
- adj. the quality of
being clear; the quality of being easily understood
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