Demonstrative adjectives / Demonstrative pronouns. This, that, these & those.
This, that, these & those.
For those of us us learning to speak Spanish, we get to learn 27 different formations of the four words we are accustomed to as this, that, these and those. Sounds overwhelming & whenever I research it in books I find that I have to go to different pages to read about demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and then yet another page to read about neuter pronouns, unless we simplify our notes, this can be very confusing, speaking for myself anyhow. However I find my friends here making mistakes here as well. I appreciate very much when I am corrected that I have decided to share my notes and offer a mini lesson on this subject. In my study I have five dry erase boards. On one of five I have my "cheat-sheet" concerning this topic.
The way I like to see these notes, it fits on an index card for practice making sentences with each form:
Demonstrative adjectives are those adjectives whose function is to point at something. In English, the singular demonstrative adjectives are "this" and "that," while the plural ones are "these" and "those."
Demonstrative pronouns: The main difference is that they (like other pronouns) stand for nouns rather than modify them. I like to think of the tilde as a mark meaning one (standing in for the noun that is not written down). As a demonstrative pronoun stands in for a noun, they are translated as:
In the masculine:
éste - this one (right here) éstos - these ones (right here)
ése - that one (over there) ésos - those ones (over there)
aquél - that one (way over there) aquéllos - those ones (way over there)
In the feminine:
ésta - this one (right here) éstas - these ones (right here)
ésa - that one (over there) ésas - those ones (over there)
aquélla - that one (way over there) aquéllas - those ones (way over there)
Please note that the RAE declared that the use of tildes over demonstrative pronouns are not required (they do not change pronunciation). Unless they are needed for clarity or there is some ambiguity without the use of them. An interesting thread
As for me personally, I don't use the accents in this site anymore as I have been corrected for using them. Anywhere else I write (where I'm not being correted) I'll use them.
Neuter pronouns: The neuter pronouns are used for abstract ideas, neither feminine or masculine, a good candidate for the use of a neuter pronoun would be a question because one would not know if something is masculine or feminine if he does not know what this, that, these or those are.
Another note to plant in memory:
esto = this or these (right here)
eso = that or those (over there)
aquello = that or those (way over there)
1 Answer
This is not an answer. I just want to bump this up for more to enjoy your work!
