‘This’, ‘that’, ‘these’, and ‘those’ (
demonstratives); also
‘here’ and ‘there’.
For the next three groups:
no-accent form – adjective – takes a noun
accented form – pronoun – stands for noun (no noun follows);
accent is omitted now unless ambiguous (rare)
o form – pronoun – stands for a neuter/abstract
noun
‘This’ → things near to me, the speaker (or a date in the speaker’s
time frame)
- este / esta (adj) – ‘this’; estos / estas
– ‘these’ + noun
este libro – this book
(dem pron) – this one
Esta es Isabel – this one is Isabel
No puedo ir este martes – I cannot go this Tuesday
- éste / ésta (pron) – ‘this one’, the latter; éstos / éstas
– ‘these (ones)’
dame éste – give me this one
(subject) he, she; ésta me lo dijo – she told me
(object) him, her; se lo dio a éste – she gave it to him
‘this person’ (introduction); éste es Miguel, ésta es la señora Molina; ésta
es mi mujer
- esto (pron) – this one (neutral/abstract thing or matter)
esto me gusta – I like this
a todo esto – by the way
esto es – that is, i.e.; vendrán pasado mañana,
esto es, el miércoles – they’re coming the day after tomorrow,
that is, on Wednesday
- éstos (pron) – these (ones)
‘That’ → things near to you, the listener, or not very far away
(or a specific date known to the listener)
- ése / ésa (pron) – ‘that one’, him, her, the former;
ésos / ésas
tiene una casa como ésa – she’s got a house like that
one
hence ... ése ... éste – the former ... the latter
(that one, this one)
- eso (pron) – that (neutral/abstract thing or matter)
por eso ... – that’s why ...
eso mismo ... – that’s just ...; a eso de las ...
– around (time)
¡eso es! – that’s it!; eso es bueno – that’s good
por eso te lo dije – that’s why I told you
‘That over there’ (‘yonder’) → things neither near to me, the speaker,
nor to you, the listener (or a vague date)
- aquél / aquélla (pron) – that one, the former, the
further one; aquéllos / aquellas ...
aquél es el mío – that one is mine;
hence ... aquél ... éste – the former ... the
latter (that one, this one)
Related adverbs:
- aquí – here (use este / esta and plurals) –
(also acá in Lat. Am.)
- ahí – there (use ese / esa and plurals) –
far from the speaker but close to the listener, probably in sight
- allí – there (use ese / esa or aquel / aquella
and plurals) – far from both the speaker and the listener, maybe
out of sight
- allá – there afar (use aquel / aquella and
plurals)
cf. similar words
- está (v) – it/he/she ‘is’, you are (usted); está
– imperative you are (tú) (both from estar)