Demonstrative pronouns can make your Spanish flow more naturally in both writing and conversation. So how exactly can you go about forming sentences with demonstrative pronouns? First, you need to understand what they stand for and how they translate in Spanish. Then you’ll be ready to absorb the basics of their usage.
Demonstrative pronouns, which replace demonstrative adjectives and their nouns, express this (one), that (one), these (ones), or those (ones). The only difference between a demonstrative adjective and a demonstrative pronoun in terms of writing is the addition of an accent to the pronoun, as you can see in the following table.
Spanish Demonstrative Pronouns
| Number | Masculine | Feminine | Meaning | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular/Plural | éste/éstos | ésta/éstas | this (one)/these (ones) | Near to or directly concerned with speaker |
| Singular/Plural | ése/ésos | ésa/ésas | that (one)/those (ones) | Not particularly near to or directly concerned with speaker |
| Singular/Plural | aquél/aquéllos | aquélla/aquéllas | that (one)/those (ones) | Far from and not directly concerned with speaker |
The following list shows some examples of these demonstrative pronouns in action:
Mire éstos y ésta también. (Look at these and this one, too.)
Quiero ése y ésas. (I want that and those.)
Aquél es viejo y aquélla es moderno. (That one is old and that one is modern.)
Here’s what you need to know about demonstrative pronouns in Spanish:
They agree in number and gender with the nouns they replace:
Me gusta este coche y ésos. (I like this car and those.)
You use a form of aquél to express the former and a form of éste to express the latter:
Patricia es la hermana de Francisco; éste es rubio y aquélla es morena. (Patricia is the sister of Francisco; Francisco [the latter] is blond and Patricia [the former] is brunette.)