I’ve been all over the internet and can’t find a satisfactory explanation for why I’d choose “this” over “that” / “these” over “those” in examples like the ones below. Help please! Thanks.
1) The birds were on an unnamed peninsula. The supplied coordinates are for this/that peninsula.
2) It’s one of ten observations in the report, where it’s second in the order these/those observations appear.
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Hello, birderguy, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange.
Although their usage sometimes overlaps, we tend to use "this" and "these" to refer to something that has just been mentioned, or that is related to the present time, and we prefer "that" and "those" to refer to something mentioned further back in the text or related to the past time.
Thanks Gustavo. That helps. But just so I'm clear on what you mean, what do you feel would be the better choices in the two examples I gave?
I think "this" and "these" work well in these cases.
