In this Topic, we're going to learn more words in the こそあど family.

この, その, and あの are used to refer to specific objects. They are also a special type of word called a 'pre-noun adjectival', which we'll learn more about in the Details section.

Now that we know a few different sorts of こそあど words, let's look at the grammatical mechanics. We'll see how この is different to これの, and what その has in common with words like 小(ちい)さな.

This One Here!

We've seen how この is used to mean 'this (one)', but what is the difference when using the の particle with これ or ここ?

While この can be used to describe a noun in terms of relative location (physical or otherwise), it can't tell us anything about possession or category. For that, we need to use の.

The exact same logic applies to other こそあど words (those beginning with そ, あ or ど).

When Is an Adjective Not an Adjective?

As mentioned on their grammar point pages, この, その, and あの are pre-noun adjectivals (連体詞(れんたいし)). These words can only ever come directly before nouns. They cannot be used alone, and they never conjugate.

Below, let's compare this to standard adjectives, which are flexible.

The Big and Small of It All

There are two common pre-noun adjectivals which are sometimes mistaken for な-Adjectives, because they end in a な sound (小(ちい)さな and 大(おお)きな, meaning 'small' and 'big'). We can tell that these are not actually な-Adjectives as they can only ever be used before nouns and do not conjugate.

These words have a corresponding pair of い-Adjectives (小(ちい)さい and 大(おお)きい). The difference in nuance can sometimes be small, but the い-Adjective version sounds more objective and factual.