How English Works #7
How English Works 7
This vs That vs The
Intermediate
In this series, we learn about English grammar differently than usual. There are no charts, no memorization, no confusing rules with millions of exceptions. Instead, we look at interesting aspects of English and how you can understand them. Don't worry if you fully understand. Notice these while you're immersing in English, and it'll all make sense with time.
Hi, how are you? My name is Ben, and you're watching another episode of How English Works. And these aren't your typical grammar lessons. We're not going to be doing any drills, no charts, and definitely not any memorization. The goal here is for me just to talk a little bit about how English works so that you can better understand it. And when you can understand these things, you'll start to figure out a little more intuitively how they're used. We've talked about some pretty interesting topics before, so if you haven't seen those videos, check them out on my channel and subscribe while you're down there. But today, we're gonna talk about some interesting words that are very similar. We're talking about this, that, and the. And this actually connects pretty well to the episode from last time talking about a, like a single thing. So let's get into these. This is, and by the way, these is actually a version of this in plural. Those, those are the same thing in plural and there's no real plural for the. We'll get into that in a second. So, the main difference actually is for these two is more about location or how close something is, which isn't always logical if it's something that doesn't exist. So, for example, let's say someone is standing next to, uh-oh, can I draw a car? Boop, boop, boop, duh, the wheel, so there's the wheel, it goes out, there's another wheel, and then it goes up. Oh God, that's a terrible car. Okay, but they're standing next to their car, and they say, this is my car. Right, they're standing right next to it, so this is my car. This is my car. Oops, I just erased that car. Because they're close to it. So they're pointing, this here is my car. This is my microphone. This is a pen. This is an empty chapstick container. All those sorts of things. There's the other one. That and those is for when things are a little more further away. So if we might move this over too, and he's saying, that is my car. Over there, that's my car, right? So I would not say that is my microphone. This is my microphone. But if I was somewhere else, right? So right that over there, that's my lamp, right? That's my lamp over there. But if I go touch it, This is my lamp. I don't know if you could hear that, but I said, this is my lamp when I was holding it. And so that, that location is really important for the difference of these words. It also applies as you just heard in less real spaces, right? So I was talking about these words. These words are the things that I'm talking about right now. So these sorts of words, I might say, where I'm thinking about them, I'm talking with them right now, they're a lot closer to me. But we'll get on to talking about that one in a second. It's not currently within our conversation, so it's that one over there. We're gonna talk about that word in a second. In this case, again, sort of right here, this case, you could actually say, we're gonna talk about this word if I, cause I'm like sort of thinking about it or circling it. But this is a little bit harder to understand because it's abstract. Right, that's a great word. Abstract is something that is not super duper clear or based in reality necessarily. Right, so you might have heard of abstract art, which is art that looks very different than like a picture. It's just colors or shapes or things like that. That's an abstract art. In this case, an abstract concept is something that isn't really real. When we talk about this, it's not something that's physical. It's not this money. It's something in our minds. And so we end up having to kind of get used to it. So if you're trying to learn this, I definitely recommend that you look for it, right? Be aware of what you're reading or listening to and try to hear when people use this or that, right? And that's the key. There's another example, right? So when you sort of find something, you wanna just like point to it, right? That's the key, that's it. But if so, let's actually just take that as an example, right? What's the difference between this is the key and that's the key, or that is the key, right? They're the same thing. The only difference between these sentences is this single word, right? Right here at the beginning. When I say that's the key, that feels complete. I'm talking about a specific thing. It's over there. I'm showing it to you. That's the key. I can finish there. But if I say this is the key, I have to continue, I'm not done yet, right? It feels like it's going to be an explanation of something, right? This is the key to unlocking success. And then you talk about it. At the end of something you can say, so, that's the key to unlocking success. And so it's this different like also feeling, right? When you're done with it, you've pushed it away, you point to it and say, that's it. But if you're going to talk about it or you're currently in that realm of conversation, that's when you're going to use this is the key. Notice there, I just said that's when. Because we're not currently talking about the time, I'm sort of finishing that thought and pointing to it. That's when we're talking about it or that's when you can use it. But if you say, this is when you can use it, it just feels like it's opening something instead of closing something, if that makes sense. And so that's another way to think about it in this abstract sense or in an abstract sense. The is a different word for a different scenario. I'm actually going to consider this and that as one thing and the as another. Because, here, let's see. Delete, let's get this all gone. Delete this, there we go. So. This is a single idea, right? These end up being used in similar situations, but they're split. But then the kind of is on its own, right? It doesn't belong inside this. There's a line here, as well as there's a line here, if that makes sense, right? So there's this line inside here, but there's also this line between these two whole ideas. Because the is, sort of version of like the what we said yesterday or last time with uh or with a number one right it's sort of like that and it's talking about a thing right so let's let's get an example in here let's use the let's do water bottle right the water bottle or just a bottle Right, the bottle. And that is saying that it is the bottle. There is one bottle, it is an important one of some kind, in some context. It's not always literally important, like an important bottle. So if you've seen Indiana Jones, you might know of the Holy Grail, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Is that how you spell grail? I think so. It's not G-A-R-L-E. Huh, whatever. I think it's how you spell grail. But notice it's also a proper noun. It's a thing. It's got a name. The Holy Grail with capital H, capital G. And so this is where the really gets used, right? The Holy Grail. The United States of America. The Ritz is a famous I think hotel, what even is the Ritz? Is it a hotel or is it a performance hall? But I don't know, it's got a name so it's the, right? It's this specific place, this specific thing. It is the most important one of those things or whatever. But then it can also be for a specific situation, right? So I've, For example, step one is take a bottle. Maybe someone says, okay, you go, all right, I've got a bottle or I've got the bottle, what do I do? It's not saying it's the important bottle or anything. It's just the bottle that I have now is this one, right? It's a specific one. If you say just take a bottle, it doesn't matter, right? But then when I have a bottle, I can say, okay, I've got the bottle. What should I do now? Right now you're saying I have a specific bottle. It's not important what the specific one is, but I've got one. I've got it right here. So that happens very often when there's a specific thing, but it's not like it's super important, right? And so, right, what's another good example? Right, so something like, this is the pen I'm using. This is the pen I'm using. You wouldn't say this is a pen I'm using, because that sort of signifies that it is an unspecific pen. This is the pen I'm using. I'm not using another pen. But if I was, for example, using a couple of different pens, and you say, hey, what's that? You go, oh, this is a pen I'm using. got other ones here. This is a pen I'm using, but if this is the only one and you go, Oh, what's that? I go, this is a pen I'm using. Sorry, that doesn't make sense. This is the pen I'm using. Right? So there's that slight difference of us says that there's multiple three pens or more. Uh, is the, is just the one. Um, and so that's sort of where that specificity comes in. Um, what's another good example? Um, I want to come up with one more example of the word for the, the thing is right. That's another specific thing. We're talking about the thing, right? Um, Oh, in going back to the instructions, right? What might happen is you, is you hear something like, uh, grab a pot or, or grab A pot. Now, fill the pot. Ah! The pot with water. So fill the pot with water. That's coming after the step of grab a pot. So you have a pot already and so you don't want to say fill a pot with water because that would be you have this double unspecified thing. So this would insinuate that you should kind of have another pot to fill with water. In this case, it would be confusing because it would be better to say fill a second pot with water But that's why you'd want to say the and so there's this So that you set up and then you turn it into talking about the right, but yeah, okay I think I've talked enough about this idea. Let's go back to the this that these though and Because there is a difference in specificity, right? When you're talking about this thing, there's a specific one that is right in your little area. But if you're talking a bit more generally about just the things around you, it's going to become the, right? It's not really a specific thing that is in the topic of conversation or that you're holding or whatnot. It's just happening. Right? So I think the example of recipe is good because you're probably not going to hear, you're never going to see this in a recipe. Well, you might, but you're not going to see grab a pot, fill this pot with water. that actually functions, it's just kind of weird. Same with fill that pot with water. Fill that pot's a little bit more natural, but I'd still always say, fill the pot with water. Because it's just not as specific, right? You're not looking at the person, unless you're giving the instructions to them. I just threw my pen at you, I'm very sorry. Unless you're giving specific instructions to somebody, right? You, go get a pot. And then you, fill that pot with water. right you're sort of showing things pointing at things it's more happening this is hard especially if you come from a language that doesn't really have these or only has one of them um i think a lot of slavic languages only have uh sort of like these ones but then they also kind of function as Try just to notice them as you're immersing and you'll get better at them. They are weird because like I said, they're pretty abstract. Whatever, I'm not gonna spell it. Because you saw that I had to come up with lots of examples when they're not super clear because that's just how English works. Anyways, that's all for this episode. I hope that you learned something, that you enjoyed this. If you did, let me know down in the comments below. I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts. Was this helpful? Was this not helpful? Do you want to see other things in the future? I do read your comments, so leave a comment down in the comment section below. I'll see you next time. Make sure you're subscribed and have a great rest of your day. Bye.
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