Spanish 2.6. Demonstrative Adjectives & Pronouns

In this lesson, we cover demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in Spanish.

Demonstrative adjectives (this, that, these, those) come before a noun, e.g., “I want this book.” On the other hand, possessive pronouns (same as demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, those) replace the noun and its possessive adjective, e.g., “I want this.”

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the described noun.

Possessive Adjectives

The following are the demonstrative adjectives in Spanish:

	Masc. Singular	Masc. Plural	Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural
this/these	este	estos	esta	estas
that/those	ese	esos	esa	esas
that/those (over there)	aquel	aquellos	aquella	aquellas

In general, “este,” “esta,” “estos,” and “estas” refer to nouns close to the speaker and listener.

On the other hand, “ese,” “esa,” “esos,” and “esas” refer to nouns close to the listener but far away from the speaker.

Finally, “aquel,” “aquella,” “aquellos,” and “aquellas” refer to nouns far away from both the speaker and the listener.

Possessive Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are the same as demonstrative adjectives in addition to the set of neuter demonstrative pronouns “esto,” “eso,” and “aquello,” which mean “this,” “that,” and “that over there,” respectively. We use possessive pronouns to refer to a whole sentence or concept, e.g., “Esto no es aceptable” (This is not acceptable), or to point at something without mentioning it, e.g., “¿Qué es eso?” (What is that?).

The following are the demonstrative pronouns in Spanish:

	Masc. Sing.	Masc. Plural	Fem. Sing.	Fem. Plural	Neuter
this/these	este	estos	esta	estas	esto
that/those	ese	esos	esa	esas	eso
that/those (over there)	aquel	aquellos	aquella	aquellas	aquello

Next: Object Personal Pronouns

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