A pronoun that points to a
person or thing in general and specifies “which one” is called a demonstrative
pronoun. There are only four demonstrative pronouns and they are: this, that, these,
and those.
For example:
How
did this book get in that shelf?
These fruits taste better than those in the red basket.
In the above sentences, “this”,
“that”, “these” and “those” are demonstrative pronouns.
The two pronouns “this” and
“that” are singular, and the two pronouns “these” and “those” are plural.
The two pronouns “this” and
“these” specify that something is close by. For example:
These apples are delicious.
This book is great.
You would probably say the
above sentences while you were either eating an apple or reading a book. This
means that the objects are close by.
The two pronouns “that” and
“those” specify that something is farther away. For example:
Those apples are delicious.
That book is great.
You would say the above
sentences when the apples or the book is not right next to you, which means
that the objects are farther away. However, the objects don’t have to be miles
away for them to be considered “far away” in grammar. For example, a book could
simply be on the other side of the room, and you would refer to it as “that
book”.
Sometimes demonstrative
pronouns are also used to refer to something that was said or done earlier. For
example:
Clara
talked badly to her teacher yesterday; that is inexcusable behavior.
In this example, the demonstrative
pronoun “that” refers to "Clara talking badly to her teacher". Clara
did this earlier, and the demonstrative pronoun “that” refers to her action
from yesterday.