Unit 9.1

Demonstrative Adjectives


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Introduction

Adjectives are determiners that can be placed in two different positions within a sentence to modify or describe a person or a thing.

Demonstrative adjectives are used to place objects in space and identify their position.

Form

Demonstrative adjectives come before nouns and introduce them. We do not use articles and other determiners before demonstrative adjectives.

Demonstrative adjectives are:

Singular Plural
Near This These
Far That Those

Example

  • This car belongs to my father.
  • This woman is my sister. 
  • These shoes are too big for me.
  • These flowers are beautiful.
  • That boy is from Turkey.
  • That is my house.
  • Those boxes over there are very heavy.
  • Those students did not study for the exam. 

Use

We use demonstrative adjectives when we place objects in space and identify their position in relation to their distance from the speaker:

  • near: we use this (singular) and these (plural) for things and people that are near to the speaker (here).
  • far: we use that (singular) and those (plural) for things and people that are far (there).

NOTE: Demonstrative adjectives are actually determiners, but in dictionaries or grammar books they are usually referred to as adjectives.

Summary

Demonstrative adjectives are used before nouns, to express the position of an object in relation to its distance from the speaker.

There are two types of positions in relation to its distance from the speaker:

  • when the object is near, we can use this for singular and these for plural nouns.
  • when the object is far, we can use that for singular and those for plural nouns.

For example:
— “This apple pie is delicious!” = The apple pie is near the speaker.
— “These apples are delicious!” = The apples are near the speaker.
— “That apple pie looks delicious!” = The apple pie is far from the speaker.
— “Those apples look delicious!” = The apples are far from the speaker.

Do not confuse demonstrative adjectives with demonstrative pronouns which replace a noun and let us avoid repetitions. They have the same forms, but they have different functions in a sentence.

For example:
— “This apple pie seems delicious!” = We use the demonstrative adjective this to show the distance of the apple pie and to introduce the noun.
♦ “This seems delicious!” = We use the pronoun this to show the distance of something and to avoid repeating the noun.

NOTE: We don’t use determiners before demonstrative adjectives, because they are already a kind of determiners.

Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.

Exercises

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