We say “this / that” to talk about one thing or person and “these / those” to talk about more than one thing or person.

• This pen. (One pen.)
• These pens. (More than one pen.)
• That house. (One house.)
• Those houses. (More than one house.)

We can place ‘this / that / these / those’ before a noun, or by themselves. Here are some examples without nouns.

• I’d like this, please.
• That is beautiful!
• Could I try these on?
• She wants those.

Using ‘this / that / these / those’ by themselves, they usually only talk about things, not people.

• This child is hungry. (NOT: This is hungry.)

Saying ‘this / these’ to talk about things or people that are close to us and ‘that / those’ to talk about things or people that are further away from us.

• This book (in my hand) is really good, but that book (on the table) is boring.

‘This / these’ have a similar idea to ‘here’ and ‘that / those’ have a similar idea to ‘there’.

As well as things that are near to us and far away from us in space, we can also use ‘this / that / these / those’ to talk about things that are near to us and far away from us in time.

We usually use this / these for things in the present and that / those for things in the past.

• I really like this movie (that we’re watching now).
• I hated that movie (that we watched last week).

Creating Sentences

We can also create sentences with THIS and THAT more generally, to talk about a whole experience or a whole discussion. We often use ‘THAT’ when the other person has said something.

• That’s a really good idea. (The things that you have explained.)
• This is so amazing (I mean the whole experience of today).

Speaking with THIS and THAT by themselves exceptionally to talk about people when we say who the person is. This happens when we introduce people and on the telephone. When we’re on the telephone, in English, we use ‘this’ to say who we are and ‘that’ to talk about the other person.

• This is Patricia. (Julia is speaking.)
• Who is that?

(If we use a pronoun like ‘me’ on the telephone, we use ‘it’ not ‘this’: It’s me. NOT: this is me.)

Using’this’ to introduce people to each other.

• Carlos, this is Pedro.
• This is my friend Maria.