Demonstratives

As mentioned previously, there are three types of adjective in Spanish. First one is descriptive adjectives and second one is possessive adjectives. Both of these adjective types were covered in earlier lessons. In the present lesson, we will introduce the third type of Spanish adjectives. This last group is called demonstratives and it will be discussed together with the demonstrative pronouns. As you will see, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns are very similar to each other.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives are called “adjetivos demostrativos” in Spanish.

To understand what they are recall that there are two types demonstrative adjectives in English. They are this and that. In addition to “this” and “that”, there are their plural forms “these” and “those”.

On the other hand in Spanish there are three types of demonstrative adjectives.

One should take into account that demonstrative adjectives are used to describe nouns. This means that the rules for adjectives are valid for them as well. That mean that they need to agree with the gender and the quantity of the noun they describe. Therefore, there are four versions of each of the three demonstrative adjectives:

This

este / esta mean this. They are used to describe masculine and feminine singular nouns respectively.

estos / estas mean these.  They are used to describe masculine and feminine plural nouns respectively.

That

ese / esa means that. These demonstrative adjectives describe masculine and feminine singular nouns respectively.

esos / esas mean those. These demonstrative adjectives describe masculine and feminine plural nouns respectively.

For Farther Things

aquel / aquela English does not have corresponding ones. They are used to describe things which stay further away. They are used to describe feminine and masculine singular nouns.

aquellos / aquellas English does not have corresponding ones. They are used to describe things which stay further away. They are used to describe feminine and masculine plural nouns.

Note that as opposed to descriptive adjectives in Spanish, demonstrative adjectives are placed in front of the nouns which they describe.

Examples

¿Tienes planes para este fin de semana? (Do you have plans for this weekend?)

Ese libro es mío (That book is mine)

Estas sillas son mías (These chairs are mine)

When demonstrative adjective needs to be used with more than one type of noun, you need to repeat them after “and”. For example;

Me gustan estos libros y estas revistas (I like these books and magazines). That means, you should not say “me gustan estos libros y revistas”.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are exactly the same as demonstrative adjectives. Just as demonstrative adjectives are used as “other” adjectives; demonstrative pronouns are used as pronouns. Recall that a pronoun is used to stand for someone or a thing. That means, demonstrative pronouns replace a noun and they are called exactly like the Spanish demonstrative adjectives:

Singular                      

este/esta           this

ese/esa             that

aquel/aquela    that one over there

Plural              

estos/estas       these

esos/esas          those

aquellos/aquellas those ones over there

Examples

• Me gusta este libro. No me gusta ese (I like this book, I don’t like that want)
• Quiero estos perros. No quiero esos (I want these dogs. I don’t want those ones)

Each of the demonstrative pronouns has a neuter form as well:

esto (this thing)

eso (that thing)

aquello

The neuter forms are used to refer to unknown objects or people therefore they do not change according to the number or the article of the noun. They should be never used to refer to specific nouns.

For example, one of the simplest sentences one can make in Spanish is made with a neuter demonstrative pronoun:

• ¿Qué es esto? what is this?”
• esto es difícil this is difficult

Vocabulary

Learn some of the basic Spanish nouns which you can use with demonstratives

(el) lápiz pencil

(la) pluma pen

(el) libro book

(la) libreta notebook

(la) mesa table

(la) silla chair

(la) mujer woman

(el) hombre man

(el) edificio building