French Grammar 104 – Demonstrative Adjectives

It might be useful to remember what these are, they correspond to ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’ or ‘those’. In French, demonstrative adjectives are affected by gender and number in the same way that articles and other adjectives are.

Singular form

The masculine demonstrative adjectives, ‘ce’ or ‘cet’ correspond to the word ‘this’. ‘Ce’ is used with any noun starting with a consonant but a ‘t’ is added when the following noun starts with a vowel to ease pronunciation.

For example:
‘Ce’ chien est noir – ‘This’ dog is black
‘Cet’ oiseau est blanc – ‘This’ bird is white.

When the difference between ‘this’ and ‘that’ needs to be made, i.e. to designate things closer or nearer, the small words ‘-ci’ or ‘-là’ are added at the end of the noun or at the end of the phrase.

Examples:

‘ce’ chien ‘-ci’ – ‘this’ dog
‘ce’ chien noir ‘-ci’ – ‘this’ black dog
‘ce’ chien ‘-là’ – ‘that’ dog
‘ce’ chien noir ‘-là’ – ‘that’ black dog
‘cet’ oiseau ‘-ci’ – ‘this’ bird
‘cet’ oiseau blanc ‘-ci’ – ‘this’ white bird
‘cet’ oiseau ‘-là’ – ‘that’ bird
‘cet’ oiseau blanc ‘-là’ – ‘that’ white bird

In the same way, the feminine demonstrative adjective ‘cette’ is used with a feminine noun as in for example:

‘Cette’ fleur est bleue – ‘This’ flower is blue
‘Cette’ rose est rouge – ‘This’ rose is red
And
‘Cette’ fleur bleue ‘-ci’ – ‘ This’ blue flower
‘Cette’ rose rouge ‘-là’ – ‘That’ red rose

Plural form

The translation of ‘these’ and ‘those’ follows a similar pattern but in the plural form. They are both translated by ‘ces’ and the additional ‘-ci’ or ‘-là’ are placed at the end of the noun or phrase when we want to specify that something is close or far in space.

‘These’ examples:
‘These’ peaches are ripe in ‘Ces’ pêches sont mûres (where the peaches are is not specified)
but
‘Ces’ pêches ‘-ci’ sont mûres (tells us the peaches are close to us)

‘Those’ example:
‘Those’ peaches are ripe – ‘Ces’ pêches ‘-là’ sont mûres (tells us the peaches are far away from us)

In the same way:
‘ces oranges ‘-ci’ means ‘these’ oranges.
‘Ces’ oranges ‘-là’ means ‘those’ oranges.
The demonstrative forms are useful when pointing at things whilst shopping, for example:

Je voudrais un kilo de ces pommes- là – I’d like a kilo of those apples.
J’aimerais acheter cette robe-ci, s’il vous plait – I’d like to buy this dress here, please.
Combien coûte ce manteau-là, sil vous plait ? – How much is that coat, please?

EXERCISE: 104 Demonstrative Adjectives | NEXT: 105 Possessive adjectives