Main points
*You use the demonstrative pronouns ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ when you are pointing to physical objects or identifying people.
*You use ‘one’ or ‘ones’ instead of a noun that has been mentioned or is known.
a) You use the demonstratives pronouns ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ when you are pointing to physical objects. ‘This’ and ‘these’ refer to things near you, ‘that’ and ‘those’ refer to things farther away.
- This is a list of rules.
- ‘I bought you these’, Linda held out a bag of grapes.
- That looks interesting.
- Those are mine.
You can also use ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ as determiners in front of nouns.
- This book was a present from my mother.
- When did you buy that hat?
b) You use ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ when you are identifying or introducing people, or asking who they are.
- Who’s this?
- These are my children, Susan and Ben.
- Was that Patrick on the phone?
c) You use ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ to refer back to things that have already been mentioned.
- That was an interesting word you used just now.
- ‘Let’s go to the cinema’. – ‘That’s a good idea’.
- These are not easy questions to answer.
You also use ‘this’ and ‘these’ to refer forwards to things you are going to mention.
- This is what I want to say: it wasn’t my idea.
- This is the important point: you must never see her again.
d) You use ‘one’ or ‘ones’ instead of a non that has already been mentioned or is known in the situation, usually when you are adding information or contrasting two things of the same kind.
- My car is the blue one.
- Don’t you have one with buttons instead of a zip?
- Are the new curtains longer than the old ones?
You can use ‘which one’ or ‘which ones’ in questions.
- Which one do you prefer?
- Which ones were damaged?
You can say ‘this one’, ‘that one’, ‘these ones’, and ‘those ones’.
- I like this one better.
- We’ll have those ones, thank you.
You can use ¡each one’ or ‘one each’, but note that there is a difference in meaning, in the following examples, ‘each one’ means ‘each brother ’but ‘one each’ means ‘one for each child’.
- I’ve got three brothers and each one lives in a different country.
- I bought the children one each.
e) In formal English, people sometimes use ‘one’ o refer to people in general.
- One has to think of the practical side of things.
- One never knows what to say in such situations.
f) There are several other types of pronoun, which are dealt with in other units.
- See Possessive pronouns.
- See ‘Wh’- questions for information on ‘who’, whom’, ‘whose’, ‘which’ and ‘what’ as interrogative pronouns.
- See Defining relative clauses and Non-defining clauses for information on ‘that’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘whom’, and ‘whose’ as relative pronouns.
Remember that most determiners, except ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘every’, ‘no’, and the possessives, are also pronouns. For this topics check the following topics: All, most, no, one; Both, either, neither; Quantity 1, and Quantity 2.
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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A - Part B
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See also:
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