1.5: Los demostrativos- adjetivos y pronombres

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Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns are used to point out the proximity of a noun in relation to the speaker.

Demonstrative adjectives

A demonstrative adjective is a word used with a noun in a sentence to point out how near or far it is from the speaker. Since nouns in Spanish have gender and number, these words also have gender and number to agree with the noun:

SPEAKER →	Aquí - here: (closest to speaker) →	Allí - there: (further from speaker) →	Allá - over there: (furthest from speaker)
Singular, masculine	este libro - this book	ese libro - that book	aquel libro - that book over there
Singular, feminine	esta silla- this chair	esa silla - that chair	aquella silla - that chair over there
Plural, masculine	estos libros - these books	esos libros - those books	aquellos libros - those books over there
Plural, feminine	estas sillas - these chairs	esas sillas - those chairs	aquellas sillas - those chairs over there

Note: the demonstrative adjective is in bold.

Demonstrative pronouns

Sometimes, when we've already mentioned the noun in our conversation, we don't need to repeat it again. For example:

Q: "Which shirt do you like best?"

A: "That one."

In this example, it would be needlessly repetitive to say "That shirt"; we already know we're talking about shirts. In situations like these, we use demonstrative pronouns.

A demonstrative pronoun is the word that replaces a demonstrative adjective + noun when it's already clear what we're talking about. They are the same in Spanish as the demonstrative adjectives:

SPEAKER →	Aquí - here: (closest to speaker) →	Allí - there: (further from speaker) →	Allá - over there: (furthest from speaker)
Singular, masculine	este - this one	ese - that one	aquel - that one over there
Singular, feminine	esta - this one	esa - that one	aquella - that one over there
Plural, masculine	estos - these ones	esos - those ones	aquellos - those ones over there
Plural, feminine	estas - these ones	esas - those ones	aquellas - those ones over there

Note: the demonstrative pronoun is in bold.

OJO:

Demonstrative pronouns have traditionally had an accent over the first "e" (e.g. "éste"; "ésos"; "aquélla"). However, the Real Academia Española, which controls the rules of the Spanish language, no longer requires the accent mark. You may see it written both ways.

Neuter demonstrative pronouns

The neuter demonstrative pronouns are used to point out a situation, idea, concept, or noun that is abstract and so doesn't have a gender. In this case, "nearness" to the speaker can instead refer to how personal or familiar something is.

OJO:

Do not confuse these with the singular masculine demonstrative pronouns, the ending is different.

SPEAKER →	Aquí - here/personal: (closest to speaker) →	Allí - there/neither personal nor unfamiliar: (further from speaker) →	Allá - over there/unfamiliar: (furthest from speaker)
Neuter	esto: ¡Esto es muy interesante!	eso: ¡Me gusta eso!	aquello: ¿Qué es aquello?

Note: the neuter demonstrative pronoun is in bold.

Videolección

By clicking on the icon below, you can hear a video lesson about demonstrative adjectives and pronouns.

¡A practicar!

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This page adapted from 5.5: Los demostrativos- adjetivos y pronombres and from 5.5.1: Práctica- Los demostrativos- adjetivos y pronombres by M. Barrio De Mendoza, K Gutiérrez, H.Ho, C. Lin, & A Stere Lugo through ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 / Combination of two pages, slight rephrasing, reordering of exercises, correction of typographical errors, and addition of an example.