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175
This year he is going abroad. I had no breakfast this morning. I haven’t seen her this week.
When used with the words town, country, government the pronoun this implies ones in which the speaker
lives or is staying at the moment of speaking. Phrases like in this town, in this country, this government, etc.,
should be translated into Russian by the actual names of the town or country as in the following:
Englishman: I do like this country - Я очень люблю Англию
or by a possessive pronoun: Я очень люблю свою (нашу) страну.
The pronoun that (those) pointing to something relatively remote in space or time may refer to something
already known or past:
Do you see that red roof over there? That’s my house.
Oh! that was a sad mistake.
That (those) can be used either as a noun-substitute or as a sentence-substitute.
The perfume of the rose is more subtle that that of the lily.
Syntactically the pronouns this and that can be subject, predicative, object, or attribute.
This was my old dear car again.
His story was like that.
Do you remember this?
The woods are so beautiful at this time of year.
When used as attributes both this and that exclude the use of the article. The pronoun such points to a certain
quality in things, persons, or situations. It is more often used anaphorically, although can also be used in its
anticipatory function.
I
like such little towns as this.
He could not love her. Such was everyone’s verdict.
You can buy there such things as buns, sausage rolls, and plum cakes.
Such never precedes the definite article, though it often occurs with the indefinite one, which is placed after
such.
I’ve never seen such a beauty.
§ 221. Indefinite pronouns indicate persons or non-persons or else their properties in a general way without
defining the class of objects they belong to, class or properties they possess. They are: some, any, somebody,
anybody, someone, anyone, something, anything, one.
Some and any are both noun-pronouns and adjective-pronouns; their compounds in -body, -one, or -thing, as
well as the pronoun one, are only noun-pronouns.
Some, any, something, anything have no grammatical categories, somebody, anybody, someone, anyone, and
one have the category of case (somebody’s, anybody’s, someone’s, anyone’s, one’s).
Some and any indicate qualities or quantities, depending on the class and grammatical form of the noun
with which they are used as attributes or for which they function as their substitutes. The idea of quantity is
actualised if they combine with:
a) count nouns in the plural:
Are there any roses in your garden? I have a tot of flowers in my garden, some of them are sweet-
scented, some are not.
b) nouns of material: