Note: The phrase y demás... is found without a definite article to close an enumer-
ation: franceses, españoles y demás naciones extranjeras‘French, Spanish and other
foreign nations’.Cierto
This is normally an adjective (variable for number and gender) meaning
‘(a) certain’. Although once deprecated, the use of the indefinite article
before ciertois now quite common in speech and writing:
Ciertas plantas son venenosas.
Certain plants are poisonous.
Ahora se nota (una) cierta fatiga en su comportamiento.
Now one notes a certain weariness in her behaviour.
Note: When placed after the noun,cierto means ‘certain’, ‘reliable’, ‘definite’: No
hay noticias ciertas de su paradero actual‘There is no reliable news of his present
whereabouts’.Tal, semejante
These words vary in number only. Tal‘such (a/an)’ can only come before
a noun.
Semejantecan come before or after a noun. When placed beforethe noun
it emphatically means ‘such’, especially in negative phrases. It can have this
sense when placed afterthe noun but more commonly it means ‘similar’
or ‘alike’.
In general neither semejantenor talis followed by the indefinite article, in
contrast to similar English constructions:
en tal caso in such a case
Nunca vi semejante chapucería. I’ve never seen such poor
workmanship.
Compraron dos sillones They purchased two similar
semejantes. armchairs.
Notes:
1 Un/a talmeans ‘a certain’ and is found especially with personal names: Una tal
Magdalena te buscaba‘A certain Magdalena was looking for you’.
2 El/la talrefers to who or what is under discussion, sometimes with a familiar,
humorous or mocking tone: El tal Martínez es un verdadero granuja‘That
Martínez is a real rascal’.9.16
9.15
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Tal, semejante