The determiner is pronounced /ðɪs/. In other cases, 'this' is pronounced /ðɪs/.
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
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.
DET : DET sing-n / n-uncount
•
This is also a pronoun.
I don’t know how bad the injury is, because I have never had one like this before.
PRON
2.
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.
PRON
•
This is also a determiner.
This report is from David Cook of our Science Unit: ‘Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?’
DET : DET sing-n / n-uncount
3.
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?...
PRON
•
This is also a determiner.
There have been continual demands for action by the political authorities to put an end to this situation.
DET : DET sing-n / n-uncount
4.
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...
DET : DET sing-n
5.
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...
PRON
•
This is also a determiner.
This church was built in the eleventh century.
DET : DET sing-n
6.
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...
PRON : PRON with be
7.
You use this when you refer to the place you are in now or to the present time.
We’ve stopped transporting weapons to this country by train...
I think coffee is probably the best thing at this point...
DET : DET sing-n / n-uncount
•
This is also a pronoun.
This is the worst place I’ve come across...
PRON
8.
You use this to refer to the next occurrence in the future of a particular day, month, season, or festival.
We’re getting married this June...
DET : DET sing-n
9.
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.
ADV : ADV adj
10.
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.
ADV : ADV adv
11.
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.’
CONVENTION [ formulae ]
12.
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...
PRON
13.
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...
DET : DET sing-n
14.
see also these
15.
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.’
PHRASE