Sasha
Professional Teacher
These vs They What variant is correct and why: "-Whose cars are these? 1. These are her cars 2. They are her cars? P.S.: Is anything correct here?: 2. What are these? — These are black bags. 3. Who is this? — This is my sister. 15. Is this your cassette? — Yes, this is my cassette. 1. Whose cat is this? — This is my cat. 2. What city is this? — This is Madrid. 5. Whose apples are these? — These are not my apples, these are your apples. 6.Whose brother is this? — This is his brother. 7. What are these? — These are your apricots. (taken from the book by Оваденко)I read in the book that when a question has THESE we should change it yo THEY like in "-Whose cars are THESE? - THEY are her cars; but later I came across the sentences that don't follow the rule: . What are THESE? — THESE are black bags. (Why not THEY are black bags). So my question is as follows: which one is correct: What are THESE? — THESE are black bags. or THEY are black bags
Oct 25, 2011 7:47 AM
Answers · 5
3
If someone asks you, "Whose bags are these?" , you have a choice of saying "These, They or Those" as your initial word. These and those are "positional" choices; use "these" if the bags are close to you and "those" if they are further away. You could also use "those" if they are close, but you wouldn't use "these" if they are far. "They" can be used at any distance and is probably the easiest answer since the bags have already been identified and your distance to them is not relevant (and you can see that I have used "they" throughout my explanation as it is more universal). Similarly, "This, That and It" are a set of words that work exactly like "These, Those and They". "This and These",, "That and Those" and "It and They" work the same way. The only difference is "this, that and it" are singular and "these, those and they" are plural.
October 25, 2011
After writing my answer, I realized you need to understand positional. Only use "these" and "this" if you can physically touch the object(s). If the object(s) is further away than that, you should use "those" or "that". Since those and that can be used at any distance, as can they and it, these four choices are probably safest to use until you are very comfortable with this concept.
October 25, 2011
I don't really get your question. Are you asking if a book is correct or not?
October 25, 2011
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