DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

1. Demonstrative
Adjectives and
Pronouns

2. Which flag? –
THIS flag.
Demonstrative adjectives and
pronouns DEMONSTRATE,
which means “show.”

3. English has two sets of
demonstrative pronouns:
Do you want
THIS apple? 
No, I want THAT
apple.

4. But what if there are TWO apples?
You wouldn’t say, “I want this apples” or “I want that
apples.”
SURPRISE! In English, you have to change
demonstrative adjectives to make them agree in
number with the noun:
I want THIS apple. BUT . . . I want THESE apples.
I want THAT apple. BUT . . . I want THOSE apples.
Spanish looks a little less strange now, huh?

5. Spanish Demonstrative Adjectives:
masc. sing. este (this) ese (that)
fem. sing. esta (this) esa (that)
masc. pl. estos (these) esos (those)
fem. pl. estas (these) esas (those)
Watch out for the masculine forms: remember that, while the
masculine singular ends in –e, the plural ends in –os. Don’t get
mixed up and write “esto” or “estes.”
Notice that the only difference between “este” and “ese”, “esta”
and “esa,” etc., is the “t”. Take the “t” out of “este” (this), and
you have “ese” (that). “A student of mine remembered it this
way: ‘This’ and ‘these’ have t’s; ‘that’ and ‘those’ don’t.” In
other words, the words that mean “this” and “these” have t’s in
them (este, esta, estos, estas); the words that mean “that” and
“those” don’t have t’s in them (ese, esa, esos, esas).

6. Guess what: Spanish has THREE
demonstrative pronouns:
Do you want this apple?
¿Quieres esta manzana?
No.
No.
Do you want that apple?
¿Quieres esa manzana?
No. I want that apple way over there.
No. Quiero aquella manzana.

7. • “Este” (“this”) is near the speaker.
• “Ese” (“that”) is not near the speaker.
• “Aquel” (feminine: “aquella”) is far away.
• If you use all three, “aquel” is the farthest
away. But if you’re not using all three, you
choose “aquel” rather than “ese” if you
want to show that something is far away.
I want to ride in that (ese) car in front of
the building, not in that (aquel) car that’s
parked on the other side of next week!

8. ms = masculine singular
fs = feminine singular
mp = masculine plural
fp = feminine plural
ms este (this) ese (that) aquel (that way over there)
fs esta (this) esa (that) aquella (that way over there)
mp estos (these) esos (those) aquellos (those way over there)
fp estas (those) esas (those) aquellas (those way over there)

9. Click here to go to a brief practice.

10. What we’ve discussed so far is demonstrative
ADJECTIVES. Adjectives describe nouns:
Quiero esta manzana. – I want this apple.
Now we’ll talk about demonstrative PRONOUNS.
Pronouns take the place of nouns:
No quiero esta manzana; quiero ésa. – I don’t want this
apple; I want that one.
The only difference between a demonstrative
ADJECTIVE and a demonstrative PRONOUN in
Spanish is the accent mark. If it’s a pronoun, there’ll
be an accent mark over the first “e” in the word.
If there’s a noun after it, it’s an adjective; if there’s not,
it’s a pronoun.

11. You would NEVER say, “Quiero ese uno” for “I want
that one.” You’d just say “Quiero ése.“
Quiero ese libro. – Quiero ése.
I want that book. – I want that one.
Quiero esos libros. – Quiero ésos.
I want those books. – I want those.
Quiero aquella silla. – Quiero aquélla.
I want that chair way over there. – I want that one way
over there.
Quiero aquellas sillas. – Quiero aquéllas.
I want those chairs way over there. – I want those way
over there.

12. This won’t be on the test, and you can skip this slide if you like.
However, if you study the book, you’re going to see “esto,”
“eso,” and “aquello.” Those are neuter pronouns. What
“neuter” means in this case is that the pronoun refers to an
idea, not a thing:
I have two books. – I want that one.
Tengo dos libros. – Quiero ése.
In the above example, “ése” refers to “libro.”
Juan is my brother. – I didn’t know that.
Juan es mi hermano. – Yo no sabia eso.
In the above example, “eso” (“that”) doesn’t refer to an object; it
refers to the fact that Juan is my brother. Since you don’t
have a masculine or feminine object that the pronoun refers
to, you use the neuter form.

13. Click here to go to your homework exercise.