Near vs Far — This, That, These, Those Singular vs Plural — Number Agreement with Demonstratives Time Reference — This Week, Those Days, These Days Phone Language — This Is... / Is That...? Back-Reference — Reacting and Referring Back with 'That' Fixed Expressions — That's Right, Like This, That's It

Near vs Far — This, That, These, Those

Practice the core distance contrast: this and these for things near the speaker, that and those for things further away. Fill-blank, error-correction and sentence-reorder exercises.

Near vs Far: The Core Distance Contrast

The most fundamental use of English demonstratives is spatial: this (singular) and these (plural) refer to things near the speaker; that (singular) and those (plural) refer to things further away. Research on demonstrative acquisition shows that learners acquire the basic near/far contrast early but continue to make proximity confusion errors under communicative pressure — particularly when adverbials like 'here' and 'there' are absent, leaving the speaker to infer distance from context alone. The most common near/far error in learner corpora is using 'those' with objects explicitly described as being near the speaker, such as 'Pass me those scissors here on the table.'

Near: This and These

Use this (singular) or these (plural) when the referent is close — physically in hand, on the desk, or explicitly described with 'here'.

This book on my desk is fascinating.
These flowers in my hand are for you.
Come and look at this! I found it right here.

Far: That and Those

Use that (singular) or those (plural) when the referent is at a distance — across the room, across the street, or described with 'over there'.

Can you see that building across the river?
Look at those birds in the sky!
What are those lights on the hill over there?

Contrasting Both in One Sentence

When both a near and a far referent appear together, the demonstratives signal the contrast directly.

Is this your umbrella here, or is that one by the door yours?
Look at those beautiful mountains.

Common Mistakes

✗ Pass me those scissors here. → ✓ Pass me these scissors here. ('here' = near the speaker)
✗ Look at these clouds over there! → ✓ Look at those clouds over there! ('over there' = far)