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In the below sentence, can we use the word "these" alone? Is the usage of "these" correct grammatically?

"The freedom of the press constitutes one of the best means of transmitting various political opinions and attitudes to the public opinion and forming a conviction regarding these."

If you ask me, "them" should have been used instead of "these". Because as far as I know, these can be used either as a pronoun at the beginning of the sentence.

Example: These are yours.

or as an adjective.

Example:These books are yours.

I do not think the usage of "these" is correct. Am I right?

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    The use of these here is correct. It is used as a pronoun to refer back to various political opinions and attitudes to the public opinion.
    – Vlammuh
    Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 12:02
  • Thank you. What about using "them" instead of "these". Is it OK, too? Is there any difference between these 2 usages?
    – Ekn
    Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 12:17
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    That works fine too. The difference between them and these is that the first is a personal pronoun and the latter a demonstrative pronoun.
    – Vlammuh
    Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 12:30
  • There are no adjectives here. You might want to learn about determiners.
    – user230
    Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 23:30

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I believe that I agree with Sander that "these" is valid there, but I agree with you that it's not how I would construct the sentence. I would use "them", or in a more formal document I might use "the same".

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THESE

[T͟Hēz]

pronoun or adjective

1.plural form of this.

The freedom of the press constitutes one of the best means of:

  1. transmitting various political opinions and attitudes to the public opinion
  2. forming a conviction regarding #1.

Point One is not a [They|Their|Them]. It is a This. Point Two is forming a conviction regarding This. This therefore becomes These.

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  • Them is the accusative case of they. The objects in question are opinions and attitudes, for which "they" is a commonly accepted pronoun. Consider:
    – Chris Barry
    Commented Oct 8, 2018 at 13:34
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"Them" is the accusative case of "they". The objects in question are opinions and attitudes, for which "they" is a commonly accepted pronoun. Consider: "Are these your opinions?", "Yes, they are my opinions.". Here the pronoun is the object of "regarding" so "them" is grammatically acceptable.

The usage of "this", "these" and "those" is often more like an adjective, viz. "these opinions", "those attitudes". I suspect that because of that the use of "these" or "those" sounds slightly peculiar. However, they are also commonly used as pronouns. e.g. "I like these." but, for me, at least, there is usually a sense that "these" has an unspoken object rather than being a "proper" pronoun. They and them are always pronouns, at least in standard English, which may make it sound more natural.

Perhaps because of the length of the sentence I find myself looking back to see exactly what the pronoun is referring to. For that reason I would say "... these opinions and attitudes." justifies the extra length by being more readable.

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