Spanish demonstrative pronouns are words that we use continuously. However, their use is sometimes confusing for some Spanish learners, even if they have been learning Spanish for a long time, and I often receive questions regarding this topic.

The problem is that Spanish demonstrative pronouns are neuter and singular, but they can be used to refer to things that we refer to with masculine and feminine plural nouns.

In this post, I share the reply to a question from one of my students.

So, if you want to learn how to use Spanish demonstrative pronouns independently of the gender and number of nouns, keep reading.

Question

I don't understand why "esto" means "those".

I have attached a list of examples I found online. It seems to indicate that "estos" means "these" but that "esos" means "those". And I can't work out why we would  use "esto son mangos" when there is more than one mango.  Am I missing something? Or have I been misled by incorrect information?

Este libro – This book.

Esta casa – This house.

Estos libros – These books.

Estas casas – These houses.

Ese carro – That car.

Esa cama – That bed.

Esos carros – Those cars.

Esas camas – Those beds.

Aquel país. – That country.

Aquella ciudad – That city.

Aquellos paises – Those countries.

Aquellas ciudades – Those cities.

Answer

This is a very good question.

As we can see in your examples, Spanish demonstrative adjectives vary in gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural) to agree with the noun that describes what we are pointing at:

Masculine-singular:
• este libro [this book]
• ese carro [that car]
• aquel país [that country (far away)]

Feminine-singular:
• esta casa [this house]
• esa cama [that bed]
• aquella ciudad [that city (far away)]

Masculine-plural:
• estos libros [these books]
• esos carros [those cars]
• aquellos países [those countries (far away)]

Feminine-plural:
• estas casas [these houses]
• esas camas [those beds]
• aquellas ciudades [those cities (far away]

On the other hand, Spanish demonstrative pronouns don’t change at all; their gender is neutral, and their number is singular:

Neutral-singular:
• esto [this]
• eso [that]
• aquello [that (far away]

It’s important to stress here that estos, esos and aquellos are in no way the plural forms of esto, eso, and aquello, but the plural forms of este, ese, and aquel, respectively.

		singular	plural
near	masculine	este	estos
	feminine	esta	estas
	neutral	esto	—
relatively distant	masculine	ese	esos
	feminine	esa	esas
	neutral	eso	—
relatively far away	masculine	aquel	aquellos
	feminine	aquella	aquellas
	neutral	aquello	—

Their spelling is misleading, but this pattern is related to the 3rd person subject personal pronouns and definite articles' pattern:

		singular	plural
3rd person subject pronouns	masculine	él	ellos
	feminine	ella	ellas
	neutral	ello	—
definite articles	masculine	el	los
	feminine	la	las
	neutral	lo	—

So:

• Demonstrative adjectives change their gender and number to agree with a noun, because they are always related to a given noun. • Demonstrative pronouns don’t change their gender and number, because they are not related to any noun yet in the moment they are used.

We use the demonstrative pronouns to point at things and ideas that aren’t described by a noun, sometimes because there is no noun to describe them, sometimes because we don’t know the noun that describes them, sometimes because we don’t even understand what those things are, and sometimes before we are about to announce the noun to someone else.

In other words, esto, eso and aquello, can refer to:
• a message or idea that can’t be reduced to a single noun
• a thing, plant or animal that we recognize, whose name we don’t know or can’t remember
• a thing, plant or animal that we don’t recognize
• a thing, plant or animal that we recognize, and whose name we know, when we are about to reveal it to someone else

Gender

It’s important to remember that gender is a grammatical characteristic of nouns, but not of real things*: a table is neither masculine nor feminine, but the Spanish noun mesa [table] is feminine. It is just one of the systems we use to classify nouns in Spanish into “masculine nouns” and “feminine nouns”.

*Even when we describe animals or people, who have a biological sex, there are many cases when the grammatical gender doesn’t match the biological sex.

[Click here to learn more about the gender of Spanish nouns.]

There are no “neutral nouns” in Spanish. We use a demonstrative pronoun to point at something when there isn’t a noun we are referring to, so we can’t choose whether to refer to it as masculine or feminine.

This doesn’t mean that the thing we are pointing at with the pronoun can’t be described with a masculine or a feminine noun, it’s just that we don’t relate to it at the moment, for one of the reasons mentioned above.

For example, when we ask ¿qué es eso? [what is that] we are expecting the other person to explain to us what something is and, if possible, to tell us how it’s called.
And, if the other person replies giving as a noun, they can choose to use the same pronoun again, before they finally reveal the noun: Eso es un libro [that is a book] or eso es una mesa [that is a table].

So, with any of the demonstrative pronouns, eso, esto or aquello, we can refer to something that is going to be described both with a masculine or a feminine noun:
• Esto es un libro. [This is a book.]
• Eso es un libro. [That is a book.]
• Aquello es un libro. [That (far away) is a book.]
• Esto es una mesa. [This is a table.]
• Eso es una mesa. [That is a table.]
• Aquello es una mesa. [That (far away) is a table.]

Number

Although number is a concept that we can apply to real things—two tables aren’t indeed a single object—there is a way of thinking that applies only to nouns: we classify nouns into “countable nouns” and “uncountable nouns”.

For example, the word lenteja [lentil] is countable, while the word arroz [rice] is uncountable. If we found a handful of each of these small things, we would describe one as lentejas [lentils], and to the other one as arroz [rice]. Although both are formed by a lot of small elements, we would describe one of them with a plural noun, because it’s a countable noun; but we would describe the other one with a singular noun, because it’s an uncountable noun.

When we use a Spanish demonstrative pronoun to point at something, since there isn’t a noun we are referring to, we can’t choose whether to address it as countable or uncountable.

This doesn’t mean that the thing we are pointing at with the demonstrative pronoun can’t be described with an uncountable noun in singular (arroz [rice]), a countable noun in singular lenteja [lentil]), or a countable noun in plural (lentejas [lentils]). Again, it’s just that we don’t relate to any noun for now, for one of the reasons mentioned above.

For example, when we ask ¿qué es eso? [what is that?], and the other person replies giving as a noun, they can choose to use the same pronoun again, before they finally reveal the noun: Eso es arroz [that is rice], eso es una lenteja [that is a lentil] or eso son lentejas [those are lentils].

So, with any of the demonstrative pronouns, eso, esto or aquello, we can refer to something that is going to be described both with a singular or a plural noun:
• Esto es un libro. [This is a book.]
• Eso es un libro. [That is a book.]
• Aquello es un libro. [That (far away) is a book.]
• Esto son libros. [These are books.]
• Eso son libros. [Those are books.]
• Aquello son libros. [Those (far away) are books.]

I hope these explanations have helped you understand the use of Spanish demonstrative pronouns. If you have questions, requests or suggestions, don't hesitate to ask.