Pronouns: Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are used to emphasise which specific thing (of multiple possibilities) you are talking about – in English we would say 'this one, or that one, or these ones, or those ones.

They generally follow mention of the possibilities you are emphasising and only exist in sentences of one of three situations:

1. followed by a propositional phrase e.g. J'ai lu beaucoup de livres, et j'aime ceux de Shakespeare (I've read a lot of books, and I like those of Shakespeare)
2. followed by a relative pronoun e.g. voici celui que j'aime le plus (here is the one that I like the most)
3. followed by a the suffix -ci (here or nearby) or -là (there or far away) e.g. J'aime celui-ci et tu aimes celui-là (I like this one and you like that one)

Notice that the first example uses ceux and the others use celui. The demonstrative pronouns match the object they are talking about, and there are 4 options:

Reminder: pronouns, including the demonstrative pronouns above, are when you do not mention the noun e.g. I like this one. If you do mention the noun it becomes instead a demonstrative adjective i.e. ce, cet, cette or ces e.g. I like this house .