Ese vs aquel vs aquella

Question

Hola....

I'm a little confused with the differences in the uses of 'that', as in: ese aquel aquello

Could someone please explain the differences to me??

mucho gracias, Stu

Answer 1

The demonstrative adjectives ese, esa, esos, esas (which agree in gender and number with the noun they are modifying) correspond to that, those "things" which are near to the person spoken to or about e. g. "Do you still have that book (ese libro) I gave you yesterday?"

The demonstrative adjectives aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas (agree in gender, etc.) correspond to that, those "things" which are far or at a distance from the person spoken to or about e. g. "Do you see that red house (aquella casa roja) down the street?"

Demonstrative pronouns are formed using the same words and have the same meanings.

In English there are only 4 forms: this, these, that, those.

Makes perfect sense, thank you. - Stu123, Jul 10, 2013

It's a pity we have lost the English demonstrative adjective "yonder" which corresponds exactly to "aquel" - padrin, Jul 10, 2013

Answer 2

I think of aquel, aquello, aquella as "yonder", an archaic English word describing a faraway distance.