Determiners   Pronouns  Exercises

Demonstratives

Demonstratives are words that indicate we are showing things, and are often accompanied in the spoken language by a showing gesture of the hand or head: This is mine.  That cat eats too much.  When they accompany a noun (that cat), demonstratives are classed as determiners.  When they stand alone (this), they are pronouns. 

Demonstrative Determiners 

English has contrasting demonstratives, this/these and that/those, for things that are closer or further away.  French only has one, so normally this hat and that hat are both ce chapeau.  It has masculine and feminine singular forms and a single plural form. 
 
 

Le réalisme, selon cette optique...  

Realism, in this view

Ces délicates constructions  

These delicate constructions

Ces monuments valent bien la peine qu'ils nous ont coûtée.  

These monuments are well worth the trouble they've caused us

La théorie la plus remarquable de ce groupe 

The most remarkable theory of this group.

It is important to remember when translating demonstratives that the this/that opposition works differently in French, so you should be prepared to stretch, choosing either this or that according to the context in English. In fact, this is by far the most common of the two in written texts as the above examples show. 

It is possible to add -ci or -là to the noun accompanied by the demonstrative, to distinguish between two things as English does with this and that. When this happens, the noun representing the second thing is usually replaced by one of celui, celle, ceux, celles (a demonstrative pronoun). However, this use of the determiner is fairly rare in written French. 
 

Il voulait cette couleur-ci, alors que sa soeur voulait celle-là.

He wanted this colour, whereas his sister wanted that one.  

Demonstrative Pronouns 

Demonstrative pronouns in French have the following forms: 

ce, cela, ceci (this/that);

celui, celle, ceux, celles (this, that, the one)

celui-ci/celle-ci (this one), celui-là/celle-là (that one); ceux-ci/celles-ci (these), ceux-là/celles-là (those).

Ce, corresponding to it or these, but also to he or she if a person is referred to, is used as a subject for the verb être. 

C'est beau. 
Ce sont de graves problèmes. 

Je vous présente Monsieur Charbonnier. C'est le chef des cheminots.

(He's the leader of the railway workers.) 

The various forms of celui correspond to the one in English, but are usually not translated that way. Look at the following examples: 
 

Tout dépend de la récolte californienne, dit François. Celle du brocoli a été moyenne.

It all depends on the Californian crop, said François. The broccoli crop was average. (literally: the one of broccoli) 

 Le bon boeuf est cher. Celui que préfèrent les Japonais est très cher. 

Good beef is expensive. The sort the Japanese prefer (literally the one)... 

These demonstrative pronouns, when attached to a noun by de, are often the equivalent in English of a possessive: 
 

Votre peau pèle un peu tous les jours; celle du serpent tombe d'un seul coup.

Your skin peels off a little every day; the snake's (literally the one of the snake) falls off all at once.