Demonstrative Determiners For Intermediate learners

What Are Demonstrative Determiners?

Demonstrative determiners (determinantes demostrativos) come before nouns and show physical, temporal, or metaphorical distance between the speaker and the noun. They enable the speaker to point to people or objects at different distances.

Spanish Demonstrative Determiners

In Spanish, demonstrative determiners agree with the noun they modify in terms of gender and number. Additionally, they denote three different levels of distance:

"Este" is used when something is close to the speaker, similar to the English "this."

"Ese" is used when something is out of speaker's reach or close to the listener, similar to the English "that."

"Aquel" is used when something is at a considerable distance from both the speaker and listener, similar to the English "that (over there)."

Each of these can have four different forms based on gender and number of the noun:

	Near	Middle	Far
Masculine singular	este	ese	aquel
Masculine plural	estos	esos	aquellos
Feminine singular	esta	esa	aquella
Feminine plural	estas	esas	aquellas

For example:

Example

Este libro es mío.

This book is mine.

Estas sillas son cómodas.

These chairs are comfortable.

Ese coche es tuyo.

That car is yours.

Esa casa es grande.

That house is big.

Aquel edificio es antiguo.

That building over there is old.

Aquellas montañas son altas.

Those mountains over there are tall.

Temporal Distance

In addition to spatial distance, these determiners can also indicate temporal distance, the same gender and number agreement rules apply here and the same three levels of distance are valid: the near determiners refer to the present or current time frames, while the middle determiners refer to events in recent past or future and far determiners refer to distant past or future.

Example

Este año ha sido difícil.

This year has been difficult.

Esa noche no dormí bien.

That night I didn't sleep well.

Aquella época fue más sencilla.

That era was simpler.

Demonstrative Determiners vs. Demonstrative Pronouns

Both demonstrative determiners and demonstrative pronouns establish a distance-based relationship; however, demonstrative determiners always appear before nouns while demonstrative pronouns replace nouns and can never be accompanied by nouns.