این، اینها، آن، آنها

THIS THESE THAT THOSE

Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy. What a long time! So much has happened since I’ve been away. I basically went on a trip, and then I got really, really ill, and I just had to recover. I could hardly speak. If you follow me on Instagram you will know about that, but, I’m back today with a really highly-requested grammar video. We’re going to be talking about the difference between “this,” “these,” “that,” and “those.” It’s a seriously important lesson.

I hear people confuse these words all the time. And, on almost every single Instagram post, somebody asks me to make at least a video about “these” and “this.” So, hopefully, that’s going to be really, really useful for you.

“This,” “that,” “these,” and “those” are demonstratives. We use “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those,” I have to get good at saying that, to point to people or things. “This” and “that” are singular, and “these” and “those” are plural. “This,” singular, and “these,” plural, refer to things that are close to the speaker, much like the word “here.” Here, “this,” “these.” On the other hand, “that” and “those” refer to things that are further away from the speaker, much like the word “there.” “That,” “those,” there. So, “this” and “these” are here, “that” and “those” are there.

“This,” “these,” here. “That,” “those,” there. Learn that and remember it in your head, because at some point you might need to remember which one is which. Before we talk about the ins and outs, the fine details of “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those,” let’s talk about the pronunciation of the words and how they differ from each other, because I know so many students struggle with the pronunciation, especially of “this” and “these.” “That” and “those,” completely different vowel sounds.

Ah, “that.” Oh, “those.” Those shouldn’t be too difficult. Note that sometimes people might put a glottal stop at the end of “that.” “Now that is amazing.” See? That’s naturally how I would say, “That is amazing.” “Those,” make sure you’re ending with a “zzz” sound. Don’t end it with a “sss” sound. So, it’s not “thossse,” which is actually quite hard to say. It’s “thozze,” “those.” Now, “this” and “these.” Well, firstly, the vowel sound is very similar, but, it is different. With “this,” we have an “ih,” “ih.” It’s a short vowel sound. “These” we have “eee.” It’s a long vowel sound. The mouth shape is the same “ih,” “ee,” “ih,” “ee.” We just elongate the vowel sound for “these.”

And then, the most important thing in my opinion, is the phoneme at the end of the word. “Thissss.” “Thesssse.” So, “this” has a “sss” sound, and “these” has a “zzz” sound, like with “those.” I hear a lot of students say, “Thessse. Thessse,” and I don’t know if they’re trying to say, “This,” or “thesse.” So, make sure, “Thisss,” short “is” sound, ending in an “s.” “Is,” “this.” “Theeese,” long e sound ending in a zed: “Theeeze.” “Thesss” is like a combination of the two. It’s not the end of the world, but you might miscommunicate a little. You might be referring to multiple things. You’re trying to say, “These,” which is a plural. But people will think you’re trying to say one thing, “This,” because it’s a singular. So, just bear that in mind and practise a little at home.

So, we use “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” as determiners. For example: “What’s this book about?” “That door’s unlocked.” “I really like those socks.” We also use them as pronouns. “This is lovely.” “That is a great achievement.” “You can take these home.” But, what are the rules? We use “this” and “that” with singular, uncountable nouns, singular, uncountable nouns. “This bread is stale.” Stale means not fresh. And, an uncountable example: “Please pass me that coffee.” We use “those” and “these” with plural nouns. “These shoes are yours.” “Those houses are for sale.” Note: we tend to use “this” with words describing time and dates.

For example: “This morning, I went on a run.” Or, “I’m going to Paris this week.” We can use “that” with words describing time and date, but it’s normally about something that was a long time ago that you’re remembering or something in the future that might or might not happen. For example: “Ah yes, the summer of 2012, that summer was a great summer.” It happened a long time ago. Or, “I wonder if I’ll ever get married. That day would be great!” Just a subtle hint there. Right! Let’s look at pronouns. We normally use “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” as pronouns to refer to things or ideas. For example: “We’re going for a Sunday roast first, and then for a walk around the village. Are you happy with that?” It means, “Are you happy with the idea of going for a roast first and then a walk?” The whole thing is an idea at the moment. “Are you happy with that idea?” “It sounds like a great idea to me. That is my dream Sunday.” Or, talking about music: “Can you turn that down please.

I hate Heavy Metal.” Or, things, if I’m talking about someone’s earrings. “Those are beautiful.” Those earrings are beautiful. We can also use “this,” “that,” “those,” and “these” to refer to people when we want to identify ourselves or others or we want to ask the identity of other people. For example: “This is my brother, George.” Or, “That’s my mother over there.” Or, “Hello. Is that John? This is Lucy speaking.” “Is that John?” because he’s far away. And, “This is Lucy,” because I am right here. I’m close to myself, in fact, I’m inside myself. Well, anyway. Yes. So, as I said at the beginning, we use “this” and “these” to refer to things that are here and “that” and “those” to refer to things that are over there. “Can I use this pen?” “I’ll print this tomorrow.” “I got these done last week, in San Francisco.” It’s true, it’s an amazing colour, isn’t it? Beckoning Begonia by Chillac. Back to English lessons. “That” and “those”: “What’s that over there?” “Those pictures we took yesterday were amazing!” “Ah, Seville, that’s my favourite place.” However, let’s talk now about emotional distance.

Sometimes there’s not a real physical distance, there’s an emotional distance. This is pretty advanced, so, if you can conquer this, you can conquer anything. Remember, this isn’t a 100% strict rule, it mostly depends on tone of voice. But, just so that you understand it in general. We generally use “this” and “these” to refer to things that we feel positive about. To refer to things that we feel positive about, that we are pleased to be associated with, or we approve of. For example: “I love these new hats that everyone seems to be wearing!” I like the hats. I approve of the hats. I use these. I’m a simple woman. We use “that” and “those” to create a bit of distance, things that we might disapprove of, things that we don’t like, things that we don’t want to be associated with. “Have you seen those awful shoes!” Or, “What did that friend of yours say?” I don’t like the friend, so I’m saying, “That friend.” Now, let’s discuss shared knowledge and new information. We sometimes use “that” instead of “the” to refer the listener to shared knowledge, things that we both know.

Often, when we’re explaining something or we’re telling a story. So, this is pretty informal. For example: “You know that house down the road? It’s getting demolished on Sunday.” We both know about the house. It’s shared knowledge, so I’m referring to it as “that house” down the road. I don’t need to specify which one because my friend will know what I’m talking about. We sometimes use “this” instead of “a” or “an” to refer to something important or recent, or to introduce a new thing or person into a story or conversation. For example: “This random woman came into my garden last week.” If I were to say, “That random woman,” it would mean that we already know who that random woman is. It would be shared knowledge. Because it’s “this random woman,” it’s a new person, it’s a new element for the conversation. So, “that” is very informal, that’s language that we use whilst having conversations with friends. What about formal writing, because I guess a lot of you are doing exams?

This will be important for you. So, we use “that” and “those” in formal writing as substitutes for “the one” or “the ones.” For example: “The best example is that given in the first paragraph.” The best example is the one, the example, given in the first paragraph. Or, “The most successful experiments were those performed in dark conditions.” The most successful experiments were the ones, the experiments, performed in dark conditions. It does make you sound ever-so-posh. Please note, though, that we don’t normally use “that” to refer to people or animals. It doesn’t sound right. “Have you seen my cat? The one with the orange fur.” I wouldn’t say, “That with the orange fur.” We can, however, use “those” as a substitute for people and animals. “The students did well in their exams. Those that got As were presented with a certificate.” “Those” referring to the students. “That was a lot of information!” (laughter” I hope that “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” is a bit clearer to you.

If you have to take one thing away from this lesson, I would say it’s the pronunciation. Just remember that “thees” doesn’t exist. It’s “this” or “these.” Just sorting out that last phoneme: “sss” or “zzz,” it really will make your speaking a lot clearer. It does take a bit of practise, I do understand that perfectly well.