Question

Choose the correct option to fill the blank.
___________ birds have colourful wings.
a) That
b) These
c) This
d) It

Answer 1

Hint: To choose the correct answer, we need to check the noun after the pronoun. It depends on whether the noun is singular or plural. Plural nouns use pronouns like those, these, etc. while singular nouns use this, it, etc.

Complete answer:
 We can see that the noun used is a plural noun. “Birds” is the plural form of the word “bird”.
Option a is wrong because the pronoun “that” is used before a singular noun. For example, that clock in the shop is made of real gold. We can see that we are talking about just one clock. If we would have talked about more than one clock, the word used would have been “those clocks”.
Option b is the correct answer because “these” is used before a plural noun. “These birds have colorful wings” makes complete sense.
Option c is wrong because once again, a singular pronoun has been used which is not correct. To use “this”, there should have been a singular noun “bird”.
Option d is wrong because “it” is used for a singular noun as well. It is not used before a singular noun but is used to refer to a singular noun. For example, The chair broke since it was very old. Here the word “it” has been used to refer to the chair which is singular in number.

Note:
The usage of a pronoun depends on the noun so careful attention should be paid to the singularity or plurality of the noun used after the pronoun. If you get confused about a certain answer, always use the word in a sentence of your own to see if it makes sense.