Hello and welcome to English with Languissimo®, the podcast in English which will help you reach your goals so that you can lead a better life and career.
My name is Vanessa. I’m the founder and CEO of Languissimo®.
Today, I will cover the demonstrative adjectives “this”, “that”, “these” and “those”.
- “This” and “that” (“ce”, “cet” or “cette » in French) are followed by a noun in the singular. “This” (pronounce the “s” at the end) is used when you’re referring to an object that is close to you or to something that is connected to the current situation. For example: “this book” (the one that is in front of you), “this episode”, “this job”.
- “That” (pronounce the “t” at the end) is used when you’re referring to an object that is far from you or to something that you mentioned earlier. For example: “that dog” (you’re pointing to a dog that is not close to you), “that position”, “that hospital”.
“At that time” (à ce moment-là) and “at this moment” (“en ce moment”) are 2 commonly used expressions.
- “These” and “those” (“ces” in French) are followed by a noun in the plural. “These” is the plural of “this” and “those” is the plural of “that”: these books, these episodes, these jobs, those dogs, those positions, those hospitals.
“These days” (“ces temps-ci” or “de nos jours”) and “in those days” (“à ce moment-là” or “à cette époque”) are 2 commonly used expressions.
- “This” is pronounced with a short “i” as in “kiss”: “this” whereas “these” is pronounced with a long “i” as in “keys”: “these”.
Some practice questions
- What are you doing at this moment?
- How did you find that explanation?
- Were those examples helpful?
- Are you going to write sentences with these adjectives?
Ta da! That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Subscribe to English with Languissimo®, practice, take care and talk to you soon! Big hugs 😊