hic

The near demonstrative: this thing here, close to the speaker in space, time or sympathy. Its opposite number is "ille", that thing over there. When a Roman writer sets the two against each other in the same sentence, "hic" points to the LATTER of two things already mentioned and "ille" to the former.

The forms are irregular and worth drilling as a set. In the singular: hic, haec, hoc for the subject; hunc, hanc, hoc for the object; huius for "of this"; huic for "to this"; hoc and hac for the ablative. In the plural: hi, hae, haec; hos, has, haec; horum, harum, horum; and "his" for both dative and ablative in every gender.

Like every demonstrative it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, and it stands perfectly well on its own as a pronoun meaning "this man" or "this thing".