Question 1

Why do we use celles-là instead of just celles?

Accepted Answer

The pronoun celles (meaning "the ones") generally cannot stand on its own in French. It needs something attached to it to clarify which ones you mean. Adding the suffix -là points to a specific group, making it mean "those" or "those ones".

Question 2

How do we know to use celles-là and not ceux-là?

Accepted Answer

Demonstrative pronouns have to match the noun they are replacing in both gender and number. Here, the pronoun refers back to a different group of les voitures (the cars). Since une voiture is a feminine noun, we must use the feminine plural pronoun celles. If we were talking about a masculine plural noun, we would use ceux-là.

Question 3

Why does the adjective chères have a grave accent and end in -es?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives must agree with the noun or pronoun they describe. Because chères describes celles-là (which stands for feminine plural cars), it must be feminine and plural. The masculine singular form is cher. To make it feminine, the spelling changes to chère, and then we add an -s because it is plural.

Question 4

If voitures is feminine, why doesn't écologiques end in -es?

Accepted Answer

The base adjective is écologique, which already ends in an unaccented -e. In French, if the masculine singular form of an adjective already ends in an -e, it stays exactly the same in the feminine form. We only need to add an -s to make it plural.

Les voitures électriques sont écologiques, mais celles-là sont chères.

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