"This," "that," "these," and "those" are demonstrative pronouns that replace nouns while specifying their nature in terms of quantity and immediacy. When these words come before a noun, they are demonstrative adjectives. "This" refers to a singular object that is close or more relevant, immediate, or accessible to the speaker, while "that" indicates a singular object that is further removed.

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In the following two sentences, "this" and "that" each replace a noun, and are therefore being used as demonstrative pronouns. 

This is where the most important items are discussed with the team

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That's a very nice hotel.

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We do not know where the discussion was held, or which hotel is being referred to, but we can assume that these locations were provided in an previous sentence. 

Here are both words used as demonstrative adjectives, which essentially answer the question "Which?" and provide specificity and clarity.

I have this red pen and this blue pen.

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You think you're so smart with that blanket.

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The word "these" is the plural form of "this," and is used for multiple items that are more immediate or relevant. "Those" is the plural form of "that."Something that is described as "this" might be right in your hand. Nouns specified with "that" might be an alternative, not the most logical choice, or something you don't have access to. 

And I'm just trying to brainstorm how can I use these in my creative filmmaking process.

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And those are made of elementary particles.

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And here we have our plural demonstrative adjectives: 

So, if you observe these writing rules, your letter will be easy to read.

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I would have seen those keys in the grocery bag.

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Further Learning
You will find hundreds of examples of "this," "that," "these," and "those" on Yabla English.

The topic above looks a bit complicated, but it's actually quite easy. "Colloquial" means "casual" as opposed to "formal," and a "contraction" is just the shortening of words. So let's talk about some of the ways that words are shortened in casual speech in American English. 

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In American English, the colloquial contractions you'll hear most often are:

"kinda" [kind of], "wanna" [want to], and "gonna" [going to].

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These words are just casually spoken contractions of "kind of," "want to," and "going to."

I just kinda stay away from all that. It's not part of my life.

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You do wanna keep your resume to one page.

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You also do wanna highlight the results, the experiences.

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What are you gonna [going to] do with it when you grow up?

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You definitely do not want to use these kinds of informal words in formal writing, for instance when applying for a job! 

There's another similar contraction that you will commonly hear among native speakers of American English: 

I'll talk to ya later, Mick. I gotta go.

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I mean, you show up and your hair's gotta be in place and the lipstick has to be right.

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The conjunction "gotta" derives from "got to" or "have got to," in the sense of "have to" or "must". A more formal version of the sentences above would be "I have to go" or "I must go," and "Your hair has to be in place" or "Your hair must be in place."

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Further Learning
Watch this video on Yabla English to learn about more contractions, and search the videos on Yabla English for more real world examples of these colloquial contractions used in a real world context.