Difference between these and this

A lot of people mistake “these” with “this” and in today’s read we will learn about how you can distinguish between them and make your writing error free.

Both “these” and “this” are pronouns. The “these” is pronounced with a longer sound of “e” because it has an “e” so, we drag the letter “e” a bit when we pronounce it. Whereas we pronounce “this” with a rather quick sound of “e” i.e., we don’t drag the sound of “e”.

First let’s have a look at “these”. “These” is used to represent plural or multiple number of things, whereas “this” is used to represent singular or a particular thing.

Let’s try to understand this with a couple of examples:

Example 1: These apples are sweet.

Note: here “apples” are plural and we are using these to point out those apples.

Example 2:  This apple is bitter.

Note: here “apple” is singular and we are using this to point out to that particular apple.