5. Demonstratives

Demonstratives are words like “this, that, these, those”, used to indicate how close or how far is something or somebody. There are two main differences between English and Spanish demonstratives. In the first place, we have feminine and masculine forms. And secondly, instead of two forms (this and that), we have three (one word meaning “this”, another one meaning “that” and another one meaning “that over there”). Here you have some examples:

Feminine forms:

Esta casa: this house

Esa casa: that house

Aquella casa: that house over there (refrain the tendency to add anything else, we use ONLY two words instead of four, precisely because “that over there” is expressed with one specific word in Spanish).

In the plural, we have:

Estas casas: these houses

Esas casas: those houses

Aquellas casas: those houses over there

Masculine forms:

Here, you must remember that the masculine demonstratives DO NOT end with “o”. Be careful with this:

Este dormitorio: this bedroom

Ese dormitorio: that bedroom

Aquel dormitorio: that bedroom over there

In the plural, however, we have an “o”:

Estos dormitorios: these bedrooms

Esos dormitorios: those bedrooms

Aquellos dormitorios: those bedrooms over there

We use all these forms in two different scenarios.

1. When the Noun is in the phrase:

Este libro es interesante. Estos libros son interesantes.

2. When the Noun is in the context of the conversation, but not in the phrase:

-¿Cuál es tu casa?

-Esa.

-¿Cuáles son tus hijas?

-Esas.

But sometimes, the Noun is neither in the phrase nor in the context, and I cannot decide if something is feminine or masculine, precisely because I don’t have a name. In these cases, I need to use the neutral forms “esto, eso, aquello”. Examples:

1. Quiero esto. Prefiero eso. Me gusta aquello.
2. ¿Qué es esto? ¿Qué es eso? ¿Qué es aquello? If I don’t know what is it, I don’t know if it is feminine or masculine, so I need a neutral form. Notice that in the answer, we also use the neutral form: Esto es un parque público. Eso es un río. Aquello es el mar.
3. When the demonstrative is related to a whole section of the sentence or phrase, we also use the neutral form: Hoy tengo mucho trabajo y varias actividades extra, y esto me impide salir contigo.

Finally, consider the difference:

1. (I am talking about a book): Este (libro) es interesante. ESTE es interesante.
2. (I am talking about a magazine): Esta (revista) es interesante. ESTA es interesante.
3. (There is a meeting at the office where we will discuss a topic that I really like): Esto (todo esto) es interesante. ESTO es interesante.

Here you have my explanatory video about demonstratives.