This lesson teaches you about demonstratives in Spanish, which can be used to distinguish objects based on their location. Firstly, take a look at the table below.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| este libro, estos libros this book, these books | esta casa, estas casas this house, these houses |
| ese libro, esos libros that book, those books | esa casa, esas casas that house, those houses |
| aquel libro, aquellos libros that book over there those books over there | aquella casa, aquellas casas that house over there those houses over there |
As you can see, just as in English, demonstratives can be used as determiners in front of nouns. The only difference is that Spanish has two versions of that. The demonstratives in the third row refer to things that are further away than the demonstratives in the second row.
Demonstratives can also be used as pronouns, which means that you use them by themselves in the place of a noun, as you can see in the table below.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|
| este, estos this (one), these (ones) | esta, estas this (one), these (ones) | esto, estos this (one), these (ones) |
| ese, esos that (one), those (ones) | esa, esas that (one), those (ones) | eso, esos that (one), those (ones) |
| aquel, aquellos that (one) over there those (ones) over there | aquella, aquellas that (one) over there those (ones) over there | aquello, aquellos that (one) over there those (ones) over there |
The forms in the third column are gender neutral forms. You use these forms to refer to unknown objects or unnamed concepts. Otherwise you use either the masculine or the feminine form, depending on the gender of the noun you are referring to.
Note that the plural form of the masculine demonstratives and the neuter demonstratives are the same.
