Time Reference — This Week, Those Days, These Days
Learn how demonstratives mark time: this for the present period, that for a past moment, these days for nowadays, those days for the past. Covers this evening, this weekend, in those days.
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I'm extremely busy ___ week — I have three deadlines.
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this
'This week' refers to the current week.
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Life was much simpler in ___ days, before the internet.
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those
'In those days' refers to a time in the past.
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I'll never forget ___ day — it was the happiest of my life.
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that
Use 'that' for a specific day in the past.
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We have an important meeting ___ Friday — don't be late.
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this
'This Friday' refers to the coming Friday.
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In ___ days, there were no mobile phones at all.
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those
'In those days' refers to a time in the past.
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I've been feeling really tired ___ days.
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these
'These days' means 'nowadays' — at the present time.
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The town where I grew up
I often think about the small town where I grew up. In {1} days, life moved much more slowly. {2} town was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else. {3} years taught me a lot about community and friendship. Now I live in a huge city, and {4} life is completely different — faster, busier and more anonymous. Sometimes, on a quiet evening like {5} one, I really miss my old home. {6} is why I've decided to go back for a visit next month. I want to walk down {7} familiar old streets again and find out whether {8} childhood memories still feel real.
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1. those — 'In those days' refers to a time in the past.
2. That — 'That town' — referring back to the distant place being described.
3. Those — 'Those years' — a period in the past.
4. this — 'This life' — the speaker's current life.
5. this — 'An evening like this one' — the present evening.
6. That — 'That's why' refers back to the reason just given.
7. those — 'Those familiar old streets' — distant in time and place.
8. these — 'These childhood memories' — the ones present in the speaker's mind now.
Time Reference: How Demonstratives Mark Present and Past
Beyond physical space, English demonstratives encode temporal distance with the same near/far logic. This and these refer to the current or upcoming time period; that and those refer to past periods or moments. This system produces the highly frequent fixed phrases these days (= nowadays), those days (= in the past), this week/morning/evening (current), and that summer/year (a past time both speaker and listener remember). Learner corpus data consistently shows confusion between 'this days' and 'those days' as a fossilized error at B1 level, with 'this days' appearing in contexts that clearly describe the past.
This and These → Present or Near Future
What are you doing this evening?
What are you doing this weekend?
Things are different these days. Everything has changed.
That and Those → Past Periods
In those days, people didn't have smartphones.
She told me about her trip. That was in 2019, I think.
Life was simpler in those days.
Common Mistakes
✗ Those days everyone uses the internet. → ✓ These days everyone uses the internet.
✗ Do you remember this summer in Italy? → ✓ Do you remember that summer in Italy?
Last updated: · Satori Editorial