Unit 12 - Lesson 57 Here and There / This and That / These and Those
LEARN
Did you look at the beginning of the last lesson? Well that was that lesson, and now this is the start of this lesson.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Here = | This | These |
| There = | That | Those |
Most often ‘this’ refers to something near at hand, right in front of you = here. You might be holding it, or wearing it, or it might be within touching distance.
For example:-
‘That’ is used for something in the distance, a long way away = there.
For example:-
"That mountain is called Ben Nevis."
"Been there, done that."
Ben Nevis. From FWVL" by Andrew Hendo - Fort William. Neptune's Staircase.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikipedia.
For example:-
"These books are mine, but those over there on the desk belong to the Network."
Another way we use these words is to distinguish between two items of roughly equal distance. Just imagine, your friend is looking at two dresses in a shop.
- "Which do you prefer, the turquoise or the blue one?"
- "Well, this blue is really nice, but that is a lovely shade of turquoise."
- Or you might reply, ‘That one’, whilst pointing to one of them. If you are really close you might touch one, ‘This one I think.’
So it is mainly about measurable distance.
This / that / these / those, can also be used to indicate a difference or distance in time.
For example:-
- "This new boyfriend is much nicer than that awful one she had before."
- "This week the weather has been much nicer than that holiday we had last year."
!Note: They aren’t always used together.
For example, you might say, ‘This is my husband, David,’ when introducing someone.
Or when they've gone, "That was my husband David. I'm sorry I forgot to introduce you.
Sometimes ‘that’ is used to refer to something that cannot be seen, even if it is close by. "What is that cat up to? He's usually home by dinner time."