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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS AND DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES
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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS They are used to indicate a person or an object, as if pointing towards it with a finger. |
QUESTO (this, this one) - QUELLO (that, that one) |
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questo this / this one (masculine) questa this / this one (feminine) questi these / these ones (masculine) queste these / these ones (feminine)
quello that / that one (masculine) These pronouns may be used either as a subject of the sentence, or as an object, in which case the English translation always includes ...one: They may be used for any other case (genitive, dative, etc.).
Sometimes, when demonstrative pronouns are the subject of a nominal sentence (a sentence whose verb is to be, which describes a condition or a quality rather than a real action), |
qui |
qua |
ĺ |
là |
Note that while in qua and qui the last vowel is not accented (although they sound as if it actually was), là and ĺ need an accented vowel. In written language, instead, it is preferrable to avoid adding these adverbs to the pronouns. The result is as follows:
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masculine
questo qui / questo qua
questi qui / questi qua |
feminine
questa qui / questa qua
queste qui / queste qua |
masculine
quello ĺ / quello là
quelli ĺ / quelli là |
feminine
quella ĺ / quella là
quelle ĺ / quelle là |
COSTUI (that man) - COSTEI (that woman) COSTORO (those people) |
These pronouns are somewhat similar in meaning to egli (he), ella (she) and essi / esse (they), but they carry a meaning of detachment from whom is speaking, as if referring to a stranger, or to somebody whom the speaker is not in relation with. |
| QUESTI (this / that person) |
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Used mainly in written language, especially in literature, questi (note the inflection, apparently the plural form of questo), may be sometimes used as an alternative for costui, i.e. a singular pronoun. It still carries a meaning of "person rather new to the context". |
| CỈ (this / that) |
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This very common pronoun, it equals in meaning to questo, it is used to indicate inanimate objects, general concepts, situations, etc.
The written language uses it more than the spoken language (which often prefers questo to cị), but it is not a merely literary pronoun. While questo and quello may be turned into adjectives, costui and cị are pure pronouns. |
| DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES |
When demonstrative pronouns questo (questa, questi, queste) and quello (quella, quelli, quelle) are followed by a noun, they turn into adjectives. In this case, a few changes occur to match phonetically the first letter of the following word. |
| QUESTO - QUELLO (masculine singular) |
When questo is followed by a noun beginning with a vowel, it makes an elision.
Pronoun quello instead, changes when the following name begins with a vowel it turns into quell', with an apostrophe; |
| QUESTA - QUELLA (feminine singular) |
questa only makes an elision (i.e. quest' with an apostrophe) if the following name begins with a vowel. |
| QUESTI - QUESTE AND QUELLI - QUELLE (plural) |
Pronouns questi, queste and quelle do not have any phonetic changes.
These rules are summarized in the following table: |
followed by any vowel followed by any consonant |
masculine questo quest' questo |
feminine questa quest' questa |
masculine questi questi questi |
feminine queste queste queste |
followed by any vowel followed by Z, or S + consonant followed by any other consonant |
masculine quello quell' quello quel |
feminine quella quell' quella quella |
masculine quelli quegli quegli quei |
feminine quelle quelle quelle quelle |