これ vsこの and それ vs そのis the sort of thing that seems hard to remember at first but becomes instinctive after listening to enough Japanese.
Vocabulary
この = this (adjective)
その = that (adjective)
犬 = いぬ = dog
可愛い = かわいい = cute
Transcript
言語ガールズ #12
How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?
Yellow: Let’s talk more about that “This is a dog” versus “This dog…” stuff you mentioned the other day.
Blue: Sure.
Blue: When “this” and “that” acting like nouns, like in “This is a dog” or “That is a dog”, you use これ and それ.
Blue: But when they are used like adjectives, like in “This dog” and “That dog”, you need to use この and その instead.
Yellow: So I could say “This is a dog. This dog is cute” like this?
Yellow: これは犬です
Yellow: この犬 は可愛い です
Blue: I think you’ve got it.
Yellow: I think I could still use some more practice. Maybe if we had a real dog we could talk about…
Blue: Nice try, but you’ll need a better excuse than that to bring a pet to school.