Demonstratives: 'ini' and 'itu'

Ini (this) and itu (that) work both as standalone pronouns and as determiners. As pronouns they start a sentence: Ini buku (This is a book). As determiners they follow the noun: buku itu (that book). This post-nominal position is the reverse of English and applies consistently.

In practice, itu after a noun often works like English "the," pointing to a known item rather than stressing distance. Laki-laki itu is closer to "the man" than "that man" in most everyday contexts.