Welcome to 15mins.today the home of English Shadowing. I'm your host Gavin and this is InTense Episode 49. Well guys, we are busy with pronouns and we've done quite a few. Today we're looking at demonstrative pronouns and these direct attention to a specific person, place or thing. There are only four of them, easy peasy right, this, that, these and those. So, these go together, this and that and then these and those. So, this, these, that, those. Ok, so this is singular these are plural and then that is singular and those are plural. Now I have what I call Gavin English so it's English I try and teach people and so how do you know the difference between this and that? So, for me, I always tell students it's easy, if you could touch something, if it's like within reach, I would refer to it as this. The moment it sort of goes out of reach, I would call it that. So I would always teach a student by having a student walk up and I touch them on the shoulder and say this student and then I make them walk all the way to the back and then I point at them and say that student,again for the plural I would have two students walk to the front I would touch them both on the shoulder and say these studentsand then I would send them to the back of the class point at them and say those students. Now is it perfect that way, no, but it works for the most part if something is close enough and in reach it's this. “I want this specific one.” and if it's out of your reach you say those, “I want those.” Ok, so this and these are close to you, that and those are away from you. I hope that helps, let's look at our examples!

Is this your car? Yes, this is my car.

Is this your car? No, this is not my car.

Is that your car over there? Yes, that is my car over there.

Is that your car over there? No, that is not my car over there.

Are these pencils on the table yours? Yes, these pencils are mine.

Are these pencils on the table yours? No, these pencils are not mine.

Is that mountain and beautiful? Yes, that mountain is beautiful.

Is that mountain beautiful? No, that mountain is not beautiful.

Are those lions dangerous? Yes, those lions are dangerous.

Are those lions dangerous? No, those lions are not dangerous.

Does that planet have water? Yes, that planet has water.

Does that planet have water? No, that planet does not have water.

Is this your phone? Yes, this is my phone.

Is this your phone? No, this is not my phone.

Is this your first time? Yes, this is my first time.

Is this your first time? No, this is not my first time.

Is that a beautiful cloud? Yes, that is a beautiful cloud.

Is that a beautiful cloud? No, that is not a beautiful cloud.

Was that a welcome rainstorm? Yes, that was a welcome rainstorm.

Was that a welcome rainstorm? No, that was not a welcome rainstorm.

Is this your favorite movie? Yes, this is my favorite movie.

Is this your favorite movie? No, this is not my favorite movie.

Well guys, there you go. Now I should point out one thing I should have mentioned about this and that, sometimes if I'm standing over here and I'm holding your phone, but you are at the back or maybe a couple of meters away from me and I hold up your phone and say, “Is this your phone?” you would not answer, ”Yes, this is my phone.” Because you are far away, you would say “Yes that is my phone.” So, just be careful with that, what is your distance from the from the object or thing? So, if you are closer you would say this so if I was looking at your phone and it was lying on your desk I would say, “Hey, is that your phone?” and you would say “Yes, this is my phone.” So, your answer would relate to your position to the object or thing that you are talking about, so if it's close to you, you would use this if it's far away from me I would use that. So sometimes a question and answer would differentiate in that way, I would use this you would use that, I would use that you would use this, depending on where the object is, of course if it was in the middle and was equal distance far away from us both out of reach I would use that and you would use that, if we were standing right next to each other and I'm pointing at it on the desk, then we both would use this. Ok, so I hope that helps, keep practicing an I'll catch you next one, bye!