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I'm a little confused about the usage of that and this.

For example: My teacher was giving out our predicted grade. When it was my turn, she said:"A, A*"

I asked "What does that mean?"

She said that "It means we think you will get an A* if you work hard enough"

Here, is the usage of 'that' correct? Or should I use 'this' instead? How am I able to tell?

Another example is when someone explains to me what a word means, I say "that actually makes a lot of sense" or should it be 'this'?

And also when I ask someone about something, should the other person say ''that or this is a good question" ?

Is there a common rule?

KillingTime
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Cat krumbles
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  • You probably know that we use this when speaking of an object which is near to us and that for one further away. You used that correctly for something that another person said to you; this would be used of something that you yourself say. "This is what I think." "Listen to this." – Kate Bunting Oct 11 '20 at 11:12
  • @KateBunting Yes, similarly if the assessment had been given out as a written document and the OP had gone to the teacher with the document for clarification they could say (pointing to the paper) "What does this mean?" becasue the information is near to them. However in that scenario either 'this' or 'that' would be acceptable. – BoldBen Oct 11 '20 at 13:00

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