No quiero ni este ni ese: quiero aquel. Demonstratives.
emonstratives are words that accompany or replace nouns, placing them in space or time. They are called demonstrative determiners when they accompany the noun, and demonstrative pronouns when they replace it, as in this case, they act as pronouns, as we will see. They have masculine, feminine, singular, and plural forms, and there is also a neutral form of demonstrative pronouns that has no grammatical gender or number. Let’s first look at what they are.
Masculino singular: este, ese, aquel.
Femenino singular: esta, esa, aquella.
Masculino plural: estos, esos, aquellos.
Femenino plural: estas, esas, aquellas.
Forma neutra: esto, eso, aquello.
Spatial location.
While this may vary slightly depending on the specific variety of Spanish, este and its gender and number variants refer to a noun that is near the speaker, ese and its variants to a noun that is near the listener, and aquel and its variants to something that is far from both the speaker and the listener.
The masculine and feminine variants always match the noun in grammatical gender and number, just like adjectives.
Me gusta este auto. Me gustan estos autos. (Near me).
Me gusta ese auto. Me gustan esos autos. (Away from me, near my listener).
Me gusta aquel auto. Me gustan aquellos autos. (Away from both).
Quiero comprar esta manzana. Quiero comprar estas manzanas. (Near me).
Quiero comprar esa manzana. Quiero comprar esas manzanas. (Away from me, near my listener).
Quiero comprar aquella manzana. Quiero comprar aquellas manzanas. (Away from both).
It is worth clarifying that this section refers exclusively to spatial location. For example, Me gustan esos autos (I like those cars) can also mean that I like a certain type of cars that are not near either me or my interlocutor. In this case, we use esos to introduce the category of a noun.
Temporal proximity.
Este and its variations refer to the present, or to moments that are very close in time, whether in the future or the past.
Esta semana tengo mucho trabajo. This week I have a lot of work.
Este domingo voy al cine. This Sunday I am going to the cinema.
Este año viajé a Europa. This year I traveled to Europe.
Ese and its variations refer to moments that are not as distant in time, also in the past or future.
En ese momento no supe qué contestarle. At that moment, I didn’t know what to answer him/her.
Para ese año ya habré terminado de estudiar. By that year, I will have finished studying.
Aquel and its variations refer to moments that are distant in time, usually in the past.
En aquellos tiempos todo era más fácil. In those times, everything was easier.
En aquella época la gente se casaba más joven. In that era, people got married at a younger age.
Use as pronouns.
The use regarding grammatical gender and number does not change; the difference is that the noun is not explicitly stated. In this case, they function as deictics: only by the context can we know what they refer to.
Este auto no me gusta. Este no me gusta. I don’t like this car. I don’t like this one.
Esa no me gusta, me gusta más aquella. I don’t like that one, I like that one more.
Neutral demonstratives.
In Spanish, there are the neutral forms esto, eso, and aquello, which have no gender or number. They are used to refer to ideas, concepts, or indefinite things.
¿Qué es eso? What’s that? Where that can be anything in the world.
No entiendo esto. I don’t understand this. Where this can be anything in the world.
Aquello fue horrible. That was awful. Where that can be anything in the world.
I hope these lines have been useful to you. Here are some exercises to practice the use of determiners. Thank you for reading!
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