talkmagic.co.uk

Nothing to do with the trick, this is a grammatical question for the native speakers among you:

Grammatically, is it better to say:

"I find THIS appealing / interesting ..."

or

"I find THAT appealing..."

when talking about an idea / concept?

My mind's gone blank.

Thanks
LP

Depends on distance.

I'd go with "I find that appealing..." in response to something someone else has said, and "I find this appealing..." in response to something you yourself have just said. There's no hard or fast rule, though, and to reiterate, I'd say the proximity is key. If you can grab it, it's "this"; if you can only point at it, it's "that". Weirdly, this is true with time, and with things that are abstract.

There's a clever term for the way in which we use spatial language to talk about temporal things; doing things through to Wednesday, not seeing beyond 2012, etc. It's suggested that this isn't a verbal tic, or something consciously coded into languages, but symptomatic of some deeper way in which our mind works.

Thank you very much Mr Grue!

I'll go with that. Or is it with this?

Thanks again.

LP.