This and That, These and Those

Languages have what linguists refer to as demonstratives, which are words that specify which object a speaker is refering to. English has four demonstratives in total: this, that, these, and those. There are two spatial references, which means that the demonstrative used either tells you that the object is near or far from the speaker, and for each spatial reference there is a singular and a plural. To understand it better, think of the difference between the phrases "this cat," "that cat," "these cats," and "those cats."

	Near	Far
Singular	this cat	that cat
Plural	these cats	those cats

Demonstratives can either modify a noun or stand in place of a noun. Some languages have different words for each type, but in English the same demonstrative is used in either case.

This food is delicious ("This" is modifying the noun "food") This is delicious ("This" is standing in place of the noun "food")

The list of demonstratives is a little longer for Xhosa, as Xhosa uses three spatial references (near to me, near to you, far from both of us), the demonstrative used depends on the Noun Class of the word, and in many cases the demonstrative is different if it is replacing a noun and not just modifying a noun. Finally, some nouns are irregular: "this man" would be "le ndoda," and not "eli ndoda".

The best way to get a good grasp of how demonstratives are used in Xhosa is through practice, so we will end here with a reference table and just a few examples.

Noun Class	Near to me	Near to you	Far	Example	Meaning
1	lo	loo/lowo	laa/lowa	lo mntu	this person
2	aba	abo	abaa/abaya	abo bantu	those people
3	lo	loo/lowo	laa/lowa	ngumthi lowa	that's the tree
4	le	loo/leyo	laa/leya	ndikhumbula leyo	I remember those (trees)
5	eli	elo	elaa/eliya	linomdla eli	this (story) is interesting
6	la	loo/lawo	laa/lawa	ngamadoda lawo	those are the men
7	esi	eso	esaa/esiya	esi sakhiwo	this building
8	ezi	ezo	ezaa/eziya	zizakhiwo ezi	these are the buildings
9	le	loo/leyo	laa/leya	le nto	this thing
10	ezi	ezo	ezaa/eziya	ezo lwimi	those languages
11	olu	olo	olaa/oluya	lulwimi olo	that's the beach
14	obu	obo	obaa/obuya	obu bubele	this kindness
15	oku	oko	okwaa/okuya	ndifuna oko	I want that (food)