Determiner, ugh. But this, in having a plural form, also nouns itself with the possessive.
That belongs to this. Those belong to these. This is that's. This' that's. Those's are thoses' is possible but is unnatural in my all-R-pronouncing English. Possessive Demonstrative Pronouns. They are not determiners, sportfans. --Allamakee Democrat 03:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
However as the so-called 'determiner' does not have a plural you cannot do it for two:
is apparently no longer good English, because somebody has decided to abolish the adjectival demonstrative pronoun these. It now only occurs as a substantive:
And of course that is utter,utter nonsense Jcwf 17:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
But then, that is what happens when people try to reinvent wheels a lot: they often do turn out square, don't they? Jcwf 17:15, 17 April 2008 (UTC)
But what is the possesive of "this"? That is what would "this'" be considered in proper grrammar? — This unsigned comment was added by 98.96.214.198 (talk) at 00:22, 27 February 2009 (UTC).
I've seen a few places online (okay, in geek forums, e.g. , ) where "This." is used as a complete sentence, usually to express fundamental agreement with a previous comment. Would this qualify as a separate usage, and if so, what is it? I suppose it's more or less short for "This is correct." or "I agree with this." but in a very emphatic way. Interplanet Janet 08:35, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
Linguists have observed a construct in Multicultural London English that looks like "this is me" (or some other pronoun or referent): it is used for reported speech, as if doing an impression of the person. "This is my mum: where've you been all night?" Not sure whether we can get that into Wiktionary at all. Equinox ◑ 01:46, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
Observing a lot of use of "this" as sort of a stand-in for more substantive info in tweets or article descriptions, with the apparent intent of piquing interest in clicking on the accompanying link. I.e., as one kind of formulation of clickbait. Merits a definition? --A12n (talk) 03:14, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
Pag 419 Mastering English An Advanced Grammar for Non-native reads
Elsewhere, demonstratives normally serve as determiners (as in that exact moment, this way, etc.). But in connection with adjectives and quantifiers such as much/many, the singular demonstratives may serve also as degree adverbs, indicating a precise amount or measure: (15) Do we need this many recommendations?
Yet, despite the number of stars in the sky being uncountable by nature, I've never seen these many stars (in the sky) --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:28, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
I found these two occurrences in Trollope's Framley Parsonage rather unusual. (The context is that of temporarily moving the children out of a house where the mother has typhoid fever.)