Demonstratives in Spanish

On this page we'll study two families of demonstratives in Spanish:

We'll meet as well the corresponding

Spanish demonstrative adjectives and pronouns tell us about the relative position of whatever it is that the noun describes.

They distinguish between three levels of proximity: very close, relatively close and farther away.

The "proximity" described can be either proximity in space or in time, or can refer to when the thing was mentioned in the discourse.

[...precede nouns]

[...replace nouns]

Estos niños son mis hijos.

These children are mine.

Estos lápices son nuestros.

These pencils are ours.

Esta salsa pica mucho.

This sauce is very hot.

Aquel cuadro es antiguo.

That picture is old.

Esta vez es la última.

This time is the last.

Aquéllos son de mi amiga.

Those are my friend's.

Esos son tuyos.

Those are yours.

Ésa pica menos.

That one is less hot.

Éste es contemporáneo.

This one is contemporary.

Ésta es la última vez.

This is the last time.

They replace nouns known to the listener in order to refer to them without mentioning them explicitly.

Compare the following two tables:

	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
	singular		plural
very close	este	esta	estos	estas
relatively close	ese	esa	esos	esas
farther away	aquel	aquella	aquellos	aquellas

	masculine	feminine	neutral	masculine	feminine
	singular			plural
very close	éste	ésta	esto	éstos	éstas
relatively close	ése	ésa	eso	ésos	ésas
farther away	aquél	aquélla	aquello	aquéllos	aquéllas

The accents on the pronouns help us to differentiate them from the adjectives.
The neutral pronouns esto, eso and aquello have no accent, because the corresponding adjectives do not exist and therefore there is no need to differentiate.
The neutral demonstrative pronouns do not differentiate between singular and plural.