this

♦

(The determiner is pronounced [[t]ðɪs[/t]]. In other cases, this is pronounced [[t]ðɪ̱s[/t]].)

1) DET: DET sing-n/n-uncount You use this to refer back to a particular person or thing that has been mentioned or implied.

When food comes out of any oven, it should stand a while. During this delay the centre carries on cooking...

On 1 October the US suspended a proposed $574 million aid package for 1991. Of this amount, $250 million is for military purchases.

PRON

This is also a pronoun.

I don't know how bad the injury is, because I have never had one like this before.

2) PRON You use this to introduce someone or something that you are going to talk about.

This is what I will do. I will telephone Anna and explain.

DET: DET sing-n/n-uncount

This is also a determiner.

`This report from David Cook of our Science Unit: ‘One of the biggest questions surrounding animal evolution is why did the dinosaurs become extinct about 70 million years ago?’'.

3) PRON You use this to refer back to an idea or situation expressed in a previous sentence or sentences.

You feel that it's uneconomic to insist that people work together in groups. Why is this?...

A job is pretty much nine-to-five. Is this what you feel would make you happy?

DET: DET sing-n/n-uncount

This is also a determiner.

There have been continual demands for action by the political authorities to put an end to this situation.

4) DET: DET sing-n In spoken English, people use this to introduce a person or thing into a story.

I came here by chance and was just watching what was going on, when this girl attacked me...

So I just walked up the steps into this big, beautiful church.

5) PRON You use this to refer to a person or thing that is near you, especially when you touch them or point to them. When there are two or more people or things near you, this refers to the nearest one.

`If you'd prefer something else I'll gladly have it changed for you.' - `No, this is great.'...

`Is this what you were looking for?' Bradley produced the handkerchief...

This is my colleague, Mr Arnold Landon.

DET: DET sing-n

This is also a determiner.

David beckons me to an archway behind the lectern. `This church was built by the Emperor Constantine Monomarchus in the eleventh century.'

6) PRON: PRON with be You use this when you refer to a general situation, activity, or event which is happening or has just happened and which you feel involved in.

I thought, this is why I've travelled thousands of miles...

Tim, this is awful. I know what you must think, but it's not so...

Is this what you want to do with the rest of your life?

7) DET: DET sing-n/n-uncount You use this when you refer to the place you are in now or to the present time.

We've stopped shipping weapons to this country by train...

This place is run like a hotel ought to be run...

I think coffee is probably the best thing at this point...

Nothing seems certain in this crucial period in Pakistan's political life.

PRON

This is also a pronoun.

This is the worst place I've come across... This could have been one of the coldest golf tournaments on record.

8) DET: DET sing-n You use this to refer to the next occurrence in the future of a particular day, month, season, or festival.

...this Sunday's 7.45 performance...

We're getting married this June...

Jordan's own-label collection of sweatshirts, T-shirts and caps will be available this Christmas.

9) ADV: ADV adj You use this when you are indicating the size or shape of something with your hands.

They'd said the wound was only about this big you see and he showed me with his fingers.

10) ADV: ADV adv You use this when you are going to specify how much you know or how much you can tell someone.

I am not going to reveal what my seven-year plan is, but I will tell you this much, if it works out, the next seven years will be very interesting.

11) CONVENTION (formulae) If you say this is it, you are agreeing with what someone else has just said.

`You know, people conveniently forget the things they say.' - `Well this is it.'

Syn:

this is true

12) PRON You use this in order to say who you are or what organization you are representing, when you are speaking on the telephone, radio, or television.

Hello, this is John Thompson...

`Hello, is this Raymond Brown?' - `Yeah, who's this?'...

This is NPR, National Public Radio.

13) DET: DET sing-n You use this to refer to the medium of communication that you are using at the time of speaking or writing.

What I'm going to do in this lecture is focus on something very specific...

What a book can do, and what this one will try to accomplish, is to present examples of how life can be made more enjoyable...

Later in this chapter, I recommend several specific steps we need to take.

14) → See also these

15) PHRASE If you say that you are doing or talking about this and that, or this, that, and the other you mean that you are doing or talking about a variety of things that you do not want to specify.

`And what are you doing now?' - `Oh this and that.'...

I want to make a point about all these charges going up, water rates and all this that and the other.