Demonstratives are the words we use to point to something in a situation. Demonstratives are often used to establish a sense of relationship between two things. They can be used to display a physical position. For example: The ball is near Jacob. The word "near" tell us that the general position of the ball. Demonstratives can also be used to display a psychological state. For example: My brother and I are very close. The word "close" in this sentence indicates a sense of a relationship between two siblings. You can also use them to point out specific objects. For example: Have you seen this pair of sneakers. The word "this" singles out a specific pair of sneakers. There is no general rule for the placement of demonstratives within sentences. They can be found attached to the subject of the sentence or they can freely float around a sentence. The series of worksheets below will help students learn how to identify demonstratives and they will move on to helping students use them in their own sentences.
These worksheets have a great deal of variety as to what students are asked to do. We begin by choosing the placement of words. We then advance on to recognizing the proper usage of a word based on relative placement. We move on to analyze sentences and break down their function of words. As we progress, we move on to rewriting sentences with this skill in mind. We advance to writing full paragraphs based on a them with use of theme-based adjectives and pronouns. In the end we learn how to organize our writing with regards to distance and time. This is an important skill to advance our writing skills.