Demonstrative pronouns - PRONOUNS - Easy Learning Italian Grammar

Easy Learning Italian Grammar (2011)

PRONOUNS

8. Demonstrative pronouns

What is a demonstrative pronoun?

In English the demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these and those. They are used instead of a noun to point out people or things, for example, That’s my brother.

1 Using demonstrative pronouns

These are the demonstrative pronouns in Italian:

	Masculine	Feminine	Meaning
Singular	questo quello	questa quella	this, this one that, that one
Plural	questi quelli	queste quelle	these, these ones those, those ones

The demonstrative pronoun must agree with the noun it is replacing.

Questo è mio marito.	This is my husband.
Questa è camera mia.	This is my bedroom.
Questi sono i miei fratelli.	These are my brothers.
Quali scarpe ti metti? – Queste.	Which shoes are you going to wear? – These ones.
Qual è la sua borsa? – Quella.	Which bag is yours? – That one.
Quelli quanto costano?	How much do those cost?

Note that quello and quella can also be used to mean that man and that woman.

Dice sempre bugie quello.	That man is always telling lies.
Conosci quella?	Do you know that woman?

For more information on Demonstrative adjectives, see page 30.

Key points

The demonstrative pronouns in Italian are questo and quello.

Questo and quello have masculine, feminine, singular and plural forms.

They agree with the nouns they replace.