Adjectives are words which describe nouns or pronouns. Demonstrative adjectives are one among seven types of Adjectives.
Demonstrative Adjectives are those Adjectives which refer to people or things near or far from the speaker in terms of distance and time. These Adjectives point out and modify nouns in order to let us know which nouns we are being referred to.
The major function of Demonstrative Adjectives is to let the listener or reader have a clear idea about nouns being talked about.
Types of Demonstrative Pronouns
There are two types of Demonstrative Adjectives. They are:
- Singular Demonstrative Adjectives
- Plural Demonstrative Adjectives
Singular Demonstrative Adjectives
Singular Demonstrative Adjectives are those adjectives which refer to people or things which are close to the speaker in terms of distance and time. There are few Singular Demonstrative Adjectives. They are:
This
Examples:
- If you make this noise again, I will punch you.
- Can you pass me this red pen?
- Is this yours or mine?
- How is this idea of going to swim?
- This place is beautiful and peaceful.
- This is my dream girl.
- Is this what you cooked?
That/Yonder/Yon (it means in a distant but within sight)
Examples:
- He is not so sure that he can dance.
- That is madness.
- That is his car.
- Is that booking his?
- That is their workplace.
- They went to clean yon temples.
- Yonder beggar-who is he?
Former
- The former education minister was a corrupt person.
- The former policy was not so progressive.
- The country was destroyed by the former government.
- The former idea was accepted by everyone.
- I took the former offer.
- He has blamed his former wife.
Latter
- He preferred the latter option.
- In the latter part of the century women started getting their rights.
- In these latter days of inflation people suffered a lot.
- In the latter part of the story the prince kills the princess.
- In these latter days of suffering we should help each other.
- In that latter decision people may be pleased.
- In the latter class people came up with new ideas.
Plural Demonstrative Adjectives
Plural Demonstrative Adjectives are those adjectives which refer to people or things far from the speaker in terms of distance and time. There are two Plural Demonstrative Adjectives. They are:
These
Examples:
- These skirts are my favorite summer clothes to wear in college.
- Eat these chocolate muffins.
- These shoes belong to my lovely mother.
- Buy him these groceries from the market.
- These cupcakes look so tasty.
- The boys who threw these torn sheets will be punished.
- These singers came to our town to sing in the yearly fair.
Those
Examples:
- Can you pass me those laptops, please?
- Do not go to meet those liars again without informing us.
- Those pens in my room don’t write anymore.
- Those employers who do not care about employees are selfish and immoral.
- Those socks are wet and smelly.
- Should we edit those plays or write new ones?
- Why doesn’t he forgive those naughty students?
Use of Numbers As Demonstrative Adjectives
Ordinal numbers can be used to express order and show distance in space and time as Demonstrative Adjectives.
For example
- For my fifth birthday, I got a toy car.
- The first time I saw her, I knew she was the one.
- Even in the twenty-first century, so many taboos still exist in society.
Confusion with Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative Adjectives are often confused as Demonstrative Pronouns. This may be because words like this, that, these and those are both Demonstrative Adjectives and Demonstrative Pronouns. However, we should clearly understand that these words as Demonstrative pronouns do not modify nouns and stand alone.
| Use as Adjectives | Use as Pronoun |
|---|---|
| This pizza is very tasty. | This is a tasty pizza. |
| Those boys are playing cricket. | These are my children – Scott and Ana. |