Diferença Entre These E Those

These e Those: a diferença que todo mundo enrola

A diferença entre these e those é mais simples do que a maioria dos cursos que já vi ensinam

Basically, you have two pairs. One pair points close. The other pair points far. That is the entire rule. "These" refers to plural nouns that are near you in space or time. "Those" does the same thing but for things that are distant. It sounds too simple to be true, which is exactly why people overcomplicate it. I spent years teaching English and grading papers. The pattern that keeps showing up is students who memorize the distance rule but then freeze when they encounter a sentence where the physical distance is ambiguous. The grammar doesn't care about ambiguity. It cares about what the speaker intends.

The practical distinction comes down to a few quick things. "These" is used when the speaker feels connected to the noun. "Those" creates psychological distance. This shows up everywhere. In a meeting you might say "I like these features" when pointing at a screen in front of you. If the same person is talking about a competitor's product across the room, they say "those features." The word choice signals allegiance, not just geography. Time works the same way. "These days I barely sleep." That means recent, ongoing time. "Those days we used to party every weekend." That means past, finished time. You can swap them and the sentence still has correct grammar, but the temporal frame flips entirely.

Here is the part nobody tells you upfront. You can use "those" to soften criticism. It is a pragmatic function, not a grammatical one, but native speakers deploy it constantly. "Those were some interesting decisions you made today." That is not praise. It is passive-aggressive distance. "These decisions" would sound more direct and therefore more confrontational. Knowing this saves you from accidentally sounding like you are starting a fight in a performance review. The most common mistake I see is people treating "that" and "this" as the singular versions and assuming the plural rule mirrors perfectly. It mostly does. But there is one edge case where it does not. When referring to entire clauses or ideas rather than concrete nouns, "that" and "this" work fine in singular. In plural, you cannot say "these were stupid" to refer to previous statements if the antecedent is abstract. You would say "those were stupid comments" or rephrase entirely. I ran into this last year when editing a legal brief where the writer kept using "these" to refer back to previously cited cases across multiple paragraphs. The judge flagged it because "these" implied the cases were currently present in the court's attention, which they were not. The fix was switching to "those cases" each time the reference jumped more than one paragraph back.

Another nuance people miss involves emphasis through contrast. When you want to distinguish two groups, the distance markers do the heavy lifting. "These cookies are mine. Those cookies are yours." The contrast is clean. But try to do that same clean distinction with "this one" and "that one" when both groups are physically nearby, and the sentence starts to feel clumsy. The plural demonstratives handle proximity-based contrast far more efficiently. There is also the contracted form issue. In casual speech, "these" often gets reduced to "zese" or even just "se." "Those" becomes "zose" or "so." Written English does not reflect this. Learners who only study formal transcripts end up confused when they hear native speakers. It is normal. Do not let it derail your understanding of the rule.

If you are trying to internalize this, here is the exercise that actually works. Pick three objects in your room right now. Name them with "these." Then name three objects across the room with "those." Then do the same exercise referring to events. "These are my current problems. Those were my old problems." The physical anchor makes the temporal usage click faster than any chart I have ever seen.

Por que o erro acontece na prática

Portuguese has "estes," "essas," "aqueles," and the distinction is partly about deictic center, which maps onto English "these" and "those" imperfectly. Brazilian Portuguese speakers often default to "those" for everything because "aquele" feels like the safer hedge. It is not. Using "those" when you mean "these" shifts the mental framing of the listener. It creates distance where closeness is intended. I had a client once who wrote "I prefer those options" in an email to her boss about a proposal sitting on her desk. It read as if she was pointing at something across the street. Her boss replied asking which options she meant, and the whole conversation derailed for twenty minutes. She switched to "these" and the response changed instantly. Same options. Different demonstrative. Entirely different effect.

Dicas que realmente funcionam

Quando usar each one

Use "these" when the referent is within your immediate context. Use "those" when the referent belongs to a shared context that is psychologically removed from the current moment. That shared context can be geographic, temporal, or social. Do not overthink the physical distance. Two meters away can still be "those" if the topic is framed as belonging to someone else or to a different time. The grammar follows the framing, not the ruler.

The one scenario where you should absolutely not use "these" is when referencing material that has already been discussed and set aside. Once a topic is closed, "those" is the only natural choice. Using "these" after a topic is concluded sounds like you are reopening it deliberately, which may or may not be your intent, but the listener will notice it either way. If you want a quick reference without memorizing ten rules, remember this. Proximity in space, time, or emotional relevance equals "these." Separation equals "those." Everything else is variation on that core decision.