Demonstratives (abbreviated dem) are words, such as this and that, used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame of reference and cannot be understood without context. Demonstratives are often used in spatial deixis (where the speaker or sometimes the listener are to provide context), but also in intra-discourse reference (including abstract concepts) or anaphora, where the meaning is dependent on something other than the relative physical location of the speaker, for example whether something is currently being said or was said earlier.

Demonstrative constructions include demonstrative adjectives or demonstrative determiners, which qualify nouns (as in Put that coat on); and demonstrative pronouns, which stand independently (as in Put that on). The demonstratives in English are this, that, these, those, and the archaic yon and yonder, along with this one or that one as substitutes for the pronoun use of this or that.

Distal and proximal demonstratives Many languages, such as English and Chinese, make a two-way distinction between demonstratives. Typically, one set of demonstratives is proximal, indicating objects close to the speaker (English this), and the other series is distal, indicating objects further removed from the speaker (English that).

Other languages, like Nandi, Hawaiian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Armenian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Georgian, Basque, Korean, Japanese, Old English and Sri Lankan Tamil make a three-way distinction.Typically there is a distinction between proximal or first person (objects near to the speaker), medial or second person (objects near to the addressee), and distal or third person (objects far from both).

Typically, one set of demonstratives is proximal, indicating objects close to the speaker (English this), and the other series is distal, indicating objects further removed from the speaker (English that).

such
that
these
this
those

Place	nowhere	everywhere	somewhere	anywhere	wherever

• defining the position or location
  • nowhere
  • somewhere
  • everywhere
  • anywhere
• a span of space whether
  • ending
    • till , until
  • starting
    • from
  • means
    • for , navigative , course
• occurring , concursive
  • precursive , precurrence
  • postcursive , postcurrenc
• period
  • prolapse
  • elapse
• increment of space
  • age
• considering indefinite , by the time , conditional time
  • start
    • since
  • end
    • till