Demonstratives

Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns

demonstrative adjectives:

Demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate specific items. Instead of refering to "the cat", we can distinguish one particular cat by saying "this cat" or "that cat". The words "this" and "that" function as demonstrative adjectives--i.e. they demonstrate or point to nouns.

The demonstrative adjectives serve the same purpose Spanish: este gato "this cat" or ese gato "that cat".

Becuase they are demonstrative adjectives, like all other adjectives in Spanish they must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify.

this house -> esta casa
these houses -> estas casas

this - esta, este	that - esa, ese	that over there - aquella, aquel
these - estas, estos	those - esas, esos	those over there - aquellas, aquellos

demonstrative pronouns:

The demonstrative pronouns serve the same purpose as the demonstrative adjectives in pointing out a specific noun, BUT they replace the noun itself.

Instead of saying "I like this cat better that that cat," we can say "I like this cat better than that one." The phrase "that one" means "that cat", but by using the demonstrative pronoun we don't need to repeat the noun "cat".

In Spanish we use the same form as the eemonstrative adjectives, but add an accent mark to differentiate them from the adjectives.

Este gato -> this cat vs
Éste -> this one

this one - ésta, éste	that one - ésa, ése	that one over there - aquélla, aquél
these ones - éstas, éstos	those ones - ésas, ésos	those ones over there - aquéllas, aquéllos

neuter forms:

When you point to an unidentified object, whose gender you do not know, you use this form.

this - esto

that - eso

that over there - aquello

Eg.: ¿Qué es eso? - What is that?

Also note that "this (esta, este) and these (estas, estos)" as well as "this one and these ones" refer to items close to the speaker, thus the word "aquí" can be used indicate that proximity.

"Allí" (there) is used to point to objects away from the speaker and "allá" to objects far away (over there) from both the speaker and the interlocutor.

This is the correpondence:

	adjetivos demostrativos	pronombres demostrativos	formas neutrales
aquí	esta, este estas, estos	ésta, éste éstas, éstos	esto
allí	esa, ese esas, esos	ésa, ése ésas, ésos	eso
allá	aquella, aquel aquellas, aquellos	aquélla, aquél aquéllas, aquéllos	aquello