BASIC SPANISH: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK

aquel/aquella/aquellos/aquellas refer to things that are far away from both the speaker
and the person being spoken to, either in time or space:

Me gusta aquella casa.

I like that house.

(i.e. the one over there, not near either of us)

Aquel verano hizo mucho calor.

It was very hot that summer.

(i.e. a long time ago)

The difference between ese and aquel is not always clear-cut, and it is difficult to
establish hard and fast rules for every use. Careful observation of how native speakers
use these two forms will help you to understand the subtle distinctions.
When these forms are immediately followed by a noun, they are demonstrative
adjectives, because they give more information about the noun to which they refer. They
can, however, be used on their own, in which case they are demonstrative pronouns, as
they are taking the place of the noun. When used as pronouns they take a stress mark to
distinguish them from the demonstrative adjective form:
éste, ésta, éstos, estas
ése, ésa, ésos, ésas
aquél, aquélla, aquéllos, aquéllas
e.g. Este libro me gusta mucho, pero aquél no me gusta nada.
I like this book very much, but I don’t like that one at all.
Estas casas son bonitas, pero aquéllas son feísimas.
These houses are pretty, but those are very ugly.

In Modern Spanish, however, the stress mark is not essential and is frequently omitted.

Exercises

1 Choose the appropriate demonstrative adjective:

1 _____ camión es de mi hermano (aquella, esa, este)

2 _____ jardín es muy bonito (aquel, esta, eso)

3 _____ ordenador está estropeado (aquella, ese, eso)

4 _____ flor es para Carmen (este, aquella, ese)

5 _____ llave es de Mario (esta, aquel, eso)

6 _____ árboles son pinos (aquellos, estas, aquellas)

7 _____ motos son muy veloces (esos, esas, estos)

8 _____ jerseys son baratos (estas, aquellas, estos)

9 _____ mapas son de Barcelona (estos, aquellas, esas)

Basic Spanish: A grammar and workbook 68