What is Demonstrative Adjective? Types of Demonstrative Adjectives and Example Sentences

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Demonstrative Adjectives

In English, demonstrative adjectives are words used to indicate an object or something. These words are the singular “this” and “that” and their plural “these” and “those”. From these words, “this” and its plural “these” are used to indicate nearby objects, and “that” and “those” are used to indicate distant objects or to indicate them as demonstrative adjectives.

Some example sentences about Demonstrative Adjectives;

This great pizza is my favorite.

That big dog is mine.

Let’s examine the two examples given below to see the difference between demonstrative adjectives and demonstrative pronouns more clearly.

This is a very intelligent parrot. (The “this” you see in this sentence is the demonstrative pronoun.)

This is a very clever parrot… (The “this” in this sentence is an adjective and we can say that it is a demonstrative adjective because it comes before the noun.)

Use of Demonstrative Adjectives

While the verb “use” is used with a demonstrative adjective in a sentence, it can be used before or after the demonstrative adjective.

“Use” is used before “adjective + noun”.

You can use this empty bag.

As seen in the example sentence given above, the word “this” in the “this empty bag” part is a demonstrative adjective, and the verb “use” in the given example sentence was used before the adjective.

They shouldn’t use that horrible idea.
This red pen is for you to use.
You can use the gaming PC I gave you.
Applying such cream to your hands can cause an allergenic reaction.
They should use these books while doing their homework.

“Those” used in the example above is a demonstrative adjective because it is used to indicate the word “books” in the sentence. The word “books” in question is a noun.

“Use” is used after “adjective + pronoun”.

The verb “use” in the example sentence given above came before the demonstrative adjective and “adjective + noun”.

That large parking lot is used by larger vehicles.
This simulation can be used to improve your aiming ability.
Those big cakes will be used for the wedding.
These clean notebooks can be used for donations.

English Demonstrative Adjectives with the Word “One”

While the word “one” is used with demonstrative adjectives in English, it generally comes after the demonstrative adjective. Even if this word does not make a big difference in the meaning of the sentence it is in, it is used both to emphasize that the thing we are talking about is only one and to emphasize the aforementioned thing.

That guy I told you about has been traveling all day.
That man I mentioned you about…

You can see the difference in the use of the word “one” between the two sentences given as an example above. The word “man” mentioned in the first sentence is emphasized with the word “one” and it is not much different from the second sentence given in terms of meaning. It has become a word used to strengthen the meaning. In addition, “one” can only be used with the singular of demonstrative adjectives. The singular of the demonstrative adjectives is “this” and “that”. It is used before adjective + noun as a form.