those

Those is a plural demonstrative word in English used to refer to people or things that are not near the speaker. It denotes items that are farther away in space or time, or that have already been identified in discourse. Those works contrast with this/these, which refer to items closer to the speaker.

Grammatically, those can function as a determiner before a plural noun, as in those cars or those days. It can also act as a pronoun, standing in for a noun phrase: Those are my friends; I don’t want those. The singular counterparts are that (for a single item) and these (for items near the speaker).

Usage notes include that those can refer to both people and things. It is common to use those with adjectives or compounds, such as those people, those ideas, or those old memories. In speech, the choice between those, these, that, and this helps convey distance and familiarity in addition to quantity.

Typically, those is used when the speaker intends distance either physically or conceptually, and it can introduce a clause or a noun phrase, as in “Those who arrived early were rewarded” or “I’d like those photos.” It remains a versatile and frequent element in everyday English, compatible with formal and informal registers.