lesson 57

Here and There / This and That / These and Those

Look at the beginning of the last lesson.

Did you look at the beginning of the last lesson? Well that was that lesson, and now this is the start of this lesson.

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."