Spanish Demonstrative Adjectives
The demonstrative adjectives are used for pointing out things. They are equivalent to saying
“this, these, that, and those” in English. Like all Spanish adjectives, they must agree with the nouns that they modify in both gender and number.
This & These
Singular | Plural | |
Masculine | este país (this country) | estos países (these countries) |
Feminine | esta estación (this season) | estas estaciones (these seasons) |
That & Those
Different demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate the proximity of an object to the speaker. Ese and its forms are used for objects that are near the speaker. The forms of aquel refer to objects that are farther away from the speaker. They are equivalent to saying that persons or things are “over there.”
Singular | Plural | |
Masculine | ese día (that day) | esos días (those days) |
Feminine | esa tormenta (that storm) | esas tormentas (those storms) |
Masculine | aquel hombre (that man over there) | aquellos hombres (those men over there) |
Feminine | aquella tienda (that store over there) | aquellas tiendas (those stores over there) |
Demonstrative Pronouns
Adding an accent mark to the stressed vowel of a demonstrative adjective transforms it into a demonstrative pronoun. In addition to the masculine and feminine, singular demonstrative pronouns have neuter forms. These are used to refer to concepts or unspecified objects.
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Singular (this) | éste | ésta | esto |
Plural (those) | éstos | éstas | —- |
Singular (that) | ése | ésa | eso |
Plural (those) | ésos | ésas | —- |
Singular (that over there) | aquél | aquélla | aquello |
Plural (those over there) | aquéllos | aquéllas | —- |