Spanish demonstratives

• Degrees
• First degree
• Second degree
• Third degree

Degrees

While in English there are only two degrees of distance (here and there), in Spanish we have three degrees of distance: aquí (here), ahí (there), and allí / allá (there, but further than ahí).

First degree

Adverb: aquí (here)

Masculine singular: este (this)

Masculine plural: estos (these)

Feminine singular: esta (this)

Feminine plural: estas (these)

Neuter: esto (this)

Second degree

Adverb: ahí (there)

Masculine singular: ese (that)

Masculine plural: esos (those)

Feminine singular: esa (that)

Feminine plural: esas (those)

Neuter: eso (that)

Third degree

Adverb: allí / allá (there)

Masculine singular: aquel (that)

Masculine plural: aquellos (those)

Feminine singular: aquella (that)

Feminine plural: aquellas (those)

Neuter: aquello (that)

Demonstratives can be determiners or pronouns. When they go before a noun, they are determiners:

Esta casa es grande. Aquel piano es negro. (This house is big. That piano is black.)

When they stand in for a noun, they are pronouns:

Esta es grande. Aquel es negro. (This one is big. That one is black.)

We use them as pronouns when we refer to something that we already mentioned, and they translate as this one, these ones, that one or those ones, respectively; we don't need to add uno/una.

Esto, eso and aquello are always pronouns. Traditionally, the other demonstrative pronouns were written with an accent mark (ésta, aquél) to "label" them as pronouns. Since 2010, RAE recommends writing them without it.

A note for the curious: many modern grammarians don't see esta in esta es grande as a pronoun, but as a determiner with an elided noun, that is, a noun we leave out: esta (casa) es grande. In this view, only esto, eso and aquello are true pronouns, because they can never go with a noun. RAE accepts both analyses, and for practical purposes it makes no difference.