This That These Those

Demonstrativos em inglês: o guia prático de this, that, these e those

A maioria dos materiais didáticos apresenta this, that, these e those como um par simples de singular e plural com noção de distância física. Isso cobre talvez 40% do uso real. O resto é muito mais sutil e depende do contexto conversacional, da posição temática no texto e de convenções que raramente são explicadas em livros de gramática. Vou começar pelo ponto que mais gera confusão. This e that não marcam apenas proximidade espacial. Eles marcam proximidade temática. When you say "I have a question about this," you're referring to something just mentioned or something present in the conversation. When you say "I have a question about that," you're often distancing yourself slightly from it — or referring to something mentioned earlier, or even something the other person said.

Understood this that these those

I ran into a real problem last year while editing legal correspondence for a client. The original draft had the sentence: "We refer to the attached document and submit our comments regarding that." The word "that" was wrong there. The document was physically attached and immediately before the reader. It should have been "regarding this." Switching to "this" made the reference feel immediate and anchored. Using "that" made it feel like the document was somewhere else, perhaps referenced in a different email chain. My client sent the corrected version and got a faster response from the opposing counsel, which I can't fully attribute to the demonstrative alone, but the difference in tone was noticeable. The same logic applies to these and those. They aren't just plural versions. They carry the same thematic distance distinction. "These issues need attention" feels urgent and present. "Those issues were problematic" feels like you're looking back at them from a distance.

Here's another nuance most beginner resources miss. In spoken English, native speakers often use this to introduce new information and that to refer back to established information. It's almost a discourse management tool. Consider: "I met someone yesterday. This person was extremely helpful." Versus: "I met someone yesterday. That person turned out to be my old colleague." The first uses "this" because the person is being introduced. The second uses "that" because the person has already been mentioned and is now part of shared knowledge between the speakers. There's also a usage pattern with those that appears frequently in formal and academic writing. You'll see constructions like "those who believe..." or "those items that require approval." Here, "those" functions almost like a definite plural article. It's not about distance at all. It's about specifying a subset of a known group. This usage has no singular equivalent that works the same way. You can't say "the one who believes..." with the same structural function. That's why you'll see "those" used in legal texts, policy documents, and research papers much more often than beginners expect.

One thing worth noting about the distance rule itself. The traditional teaching says "this" is near and "that" is far. But in telephonic communication, where physical distance is irrelevant, native speakers consistently use "this" to refer to themselves and "that" to refer to the other person. "This is John speaking" versus "Is that Sarah?" This convention is so entrenched that breaking it sounds unnatural, even though it makes zero logical sense in terms of physical proximity. There are also time-based uses that don't fit the spatial model. "In this age," "during that period," "these days," "back in those times." Here, "this" and "these" anchor to the speaker's present moment, while "that" and "those" anchor to a period the speaker treats as separate from now. The boundary isn't about meters or feet. It's about whether the speaker frames the reference point as overlapping with their current temporal perspective.

Another practical consideration. When you're writing and you repeat a noun within the same paragraph, using a demonstrative instead of the noun again often reads more naturally. "The report contains three recommendations. This report should be reviewed quarterly." The second "this report" avoids repetition while maintaining clarity. But overusing demonstratives in place of nouns can create ambiguity, especially in longer documents where the referent might be unclear. A good rule of thumb is to use a demonstrative on the second reference at the latest. By the third reference, you should either use a pronoun or restate the noun if there's any chance of confusion. The plural forms these and those have a specific constraint that trips up many learners. You cannot use "these" or "those" with uncountable nouns. "These information" is incorrect. "Those furniture" is incorrect. You need to rephrase: "this information," "that furniture," or use a measure phrase like "these pieces of information." This restriction applies consistently across all registers, from casual speech to academic writing.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

The most frequent error is treating this and that as purely spatial markers and applying them rigidly. If you're describing a photograph, you might say "this person in the front" even though the person is physically far away in the image. The photograph creates a deictic center at the viewer's location, so "near" and "far" are redefined. Similarly, when reading a text, "this next section" refers to something ahead of you in the document, which is spatially distant but thematically close to your current position in the reading flow. Another common issue arises in written English when the demonstrative reference spans multiple paragraphs. "The company announced its quarterly results yesterday. That announcement caused a surge in trading volume." If you wrote "this announcement" instead, it would imply the announcement is still immediate and active in the discourse. "That announcement" properly distances it as something that happened and its effects are now being discussed as past events. The choice affects how the reader temporally frames the information.

For non-native speakers, the hardest adjustment is often letting go of the one-to-one translation from their native language. Many languages have demonstratives with different distance distinctions — some have three levels, some have none at all. Portuguese, for instance, has "este/esse/aquele" which map imperfectly onto English's two-level system. "Este" roughly corresponds to "this" when the speaker is the focal point, "esse" aligns with "that" in many contexts, and "aquele" is a more distant "that." But the mappings are approximate and context-dependent, so direct translation often produces awkward or incorrect results.

When the demonstrative system breaks down

There are situations where demonstratives simply don't work well. In highly technical writing with dense terminology, constant use of "this" and "that" creates referential ambiguity because the reader has to constantly track what each demonstrative points back to. In those cases, repeating the full noun or using a precise pronoun is clearer, even if it feels slightly repetitive. Clarity trumps elegance in technical documents. Another limitation is cross-cultural interpretation. In some communicative cultures, the indirect reference created by "that" can sound dismissive or cold. A non-native speaker might use "that" when they mean "this" because they're following a literal distance rule, and the native listener perceives unintended emotional distance. This is especially relevant in customer service, negotiations, and any context where tone matters as much as meaning.

If you need a quick practical check, read the sentence aloud. Native speakers' instinctive choice between "this" and "that" often reveals the right answer better than any rule. When you hesitate between the two, ask yourself whether you're bringing the referent close to the current moment or pushing it away. The answer to that question usually points to the correct form.