Demonstratives
There are many situations in which you need to refer to “this,” “that,” and “the other thing.” These words are called “demonstratives” because they demonstrate which thing or things you are referring to. Demonstratives can be used to point out specific items or to refer to abstract concepts or unknown things. Because they are adjectives, they agree in number and gender with the item they refer to. There are also neuter forms to refer to abstracts. Let's have a quick look.
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
this book |
this magazine |
this (thing or idea) |
these books |
these magazines |
these (things or ideas) |
that book |
that magazine |
that (thing or idea) |
those books |
those magazines |
those (things or ideas) |
Demonstratives help to communicate a sense of nearness or distance from the speaker to the object(s) in question. In addition to physical distance, demonstratives can communicate temporal distance. Because of this, their use is rather subjective. There isn't a hard-and-fast rule to determine when you would use “this” or “that”; it generally depends on the perspective of the speaker. There are some norms, however. For example, if the speaker is holding a book in his hand, it is more likely that he will say
If that isn't enough for you, Spanish has a third demonstrative that communicates a greater spatial or temporal distance than “that.” This third form is more or less equivalent to the English ideas “that over there” or “that way back when.”
(That book [that book over there, or that book that I read a long time ago], is fascinating.)
(That woman [that over there, or that woman from the past], is very interesting.)
(I don't like that [that thing over there, or that idea from the past].)
(Those boats [those boats in the distance, or those boats from the past], are very beautiful.)
(Those houses are very expensive.)
(Where are those things over there from?)
Practice by looking around you and jotting down sentences using demonstratives to talk about things near and far.
This and That in the Garden
To clarify, let's take this lesson about demonstratives into the garden. First, start with a garden vocabulary tour, and then practice with demonstratives as you make polite requests of landscape professionals.
Plants
Tasks
Tools
Take a minute to look around your garden and jot down the things that need doing. Here are some likely jobs awaiting you:
Now let's imagine you've got someone coming by to help you out whose first language is Spanish. How can you politely express what you would like him to do and where? Remember those polite request formulas from the first section of this chapter and the demonstratives from the second section? It's time to put them to a very practical use. Complete each sentence with an appropriate demonstrative to clarify your wishes. You can find the answers in Appendix D.
Practice: Demonstratives in the Garden
¿Puede recortar __________ (these)arbustos, por favor? ¿Quiere cortar el césped y recoger __________ (those)hojas? ¿Me hace el favor de plantar __________ (these)flores? ¿Puede regar __________ (those over there)macetas, por favor? ¿Me quita __________ (this)árbol muerto, por favor?
Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative adjectives are always used with a noun. However, some demonstratives that work like pronouns, replacing the nouns they refer to. For example, you might say something like: “Can you please prune this tree and that one?” “This” is the demonstrative adjective
(Can you please prune this tree and that one?)
(These branches are fine, but those are dead.)
(Are you familiar with this plant? And that one?)
There is absolutely no difference in pronunciation between the demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. The only difference is that the pronoun forms all have a written accent over the vowel of the stressed syllable to distinguish them from the adjective forms.
