Difference Between It and That
“It” and “that” are the same in the sense that they are both demonstrative pronouns, they are used to replace a subject when you have already discussed it and you mean to talk more about it. The difference between the two lies in their usage in the English Grammar. For example, in these two sentences “ She stares at it” and “She stares at that”, in the former you are talking about something that is near you while in the latter you are talking about something that is far from you.
Aside from that, the word “it” may also be used to put emphasis on a sentence that confirms like in “Yes, it is”. This means that someone else has already spoken about the subject and that you are confirming that earlier statement. Also, “it” may also be used to express a general idea like “It is so.”
If you want to connect two sentences, you may use the word “that” as in “It is important to understand that I am not like you.”Also, “that” may also be used to connote time like “That is just the beginning of the show.” In this sentence, you are stressing the time when the show started.
Lastly, these two words, “it” and “that” may also be used to denote an event or idea that occurred sometime back and long time back, respectively. Example for the former is “ she knew it” while for the latter we have “she knew that”.
To summarize:
- “It” and “that” are both demonstrative pronouns that are used differently in English grammar
- “It” is used to connote something near
- “That” is used to connote something far
- “It” may be used to put emphasis on a sentence that confirms
- “It” is also used to express a general idea
- “That” can be used to connect two sentences
- “That” may also be used to denote time
- “It” may be used to discuss an event that happened sometime back
- “That” may be used to discuss an event that happened long time back