Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjective demonstrates or indicates noun. It shows whether a noun a speaker refers to is singular or plural and if it is near or far from the speaker. The four demonstrative adjectives are this, that, these and those. This indicates that the noun the speaker refers to is near and that is far. Demonstrative adjective is put before the noun it modifies or comes before all other adjectives in a noun phrase.

You may use demonstrative adjective in the following ways:

1. Use this/that with singular noun

Examples:

a. This novel is the best among all I’ve ever read.
b. I found that black cat in my garden a month ago.

This in sentence a modifies novel (the position is near from the speaker), and the noun phrase this novel serves as the subject of the sentence.
That in sentence b modifies black cat (the position is far from the speaker), and the noun phrase that black cat serves as the object of the verb found.

2. Use these/those with plural noun.

Examples:
a. She doesn’t like these old books.
b. Those ideas sound strange for me.
These in sentence “a” modifies old books (plural noun) and the noun phrase these old books serves as the object of the verb like.
Those in sentence “b” modifies ideas (plural noun) and the noun phrase those ideas serves as the subject of the sentence.

3. You can also use demonstrative adjective as demonstrative pronoun.

Examples:
These cards have been named and arranged alphabetically (demonstrative adjective).
You only need to delete the noun cards to make these functions as a demonstrative pronoun. The sentence then becomes;
These have been named and arranged alphabetically (demonstrative adjective).

Note:

The relationship between demonstrative adjective and demonstrative pronoun is like possessive adjective and possessive pronoun or interrogative adjective and interrogative pronoun.

To see the complete information on adjective form, just click here or the kind of adjective is here!