Spanish determiners
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The Spanish language uses determiners in a similar way to English. The main difference is that they "agree" with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine).
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[edit] Demonstrative determiners
Spanish has three levels of demonstrative determiners (see deixis):
- Closest to the speaker (proximal): este, esta, estos, estas
- Closest to the hearer (distal): ese, esa, esos, esas
- Far from both (distal): aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas
English also used to have a three-way system like this: "this hill (here)", "that hill (there)" or "yon hill (yonder)" — in Spanish, "esta colina", "esa colina", "aquella colina". English lost the third level, so that the "that, there" series covers the ground of "yon, yonder".
Este refers to something near the speaker (the first person). Ese refers to something nearer the hearer (the second person). Aquel refers to something away from both the speaker and the hearer.
In the same way, Spanish has 3 demonstrative adverbs of place: aquí (here), ahí (there, close) and allí (there, far). Variants of these are acá for aquí, and allá for allí, which formerly had an allative rather than locative meaning (nowadays both forms are used for both meanings) and still may show differences in usage or connotation (acá and allá may be used by some speakers to refer to wider or less definite reference locations, "over here" and "over there", than the ones referenced by aquí and allí, or as an intensive form of these, some others may preserve the former allative vs. locative distinction, while others may use both forms interchangeably or choose one over other according to mere dialectal preferences). Another adverb is acullá (at the opposite side from the speaker), seldom used nowadays except in some idiomatic contrasting phrases such as acá y acullá ("here and there") or as an intensive form of allí or allá.
A similar system is found in other Romance languages, as well as in Japanese.
[edit] Articles
[edit] Definite articles
The definite article in Spanish, corresponding to "the", is el. It agrees for gender and number as follows:
- el hombre = "[the] man"
- los hombres = "[the] men"
- la mujer = "[the] woman"
- las mujeres = "[the] women"
The usually masculine form el is used instead of la before feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound:
- el águila (pequeña)
- el agua (fresca)
- el hacha (afilada)
Exceptions: la is used despite this when use of el would imply a man:
- la ácrata (because el ácrata would be a male anarchist)
- la árabe (because el árabe would be a male Arab, or the Arabic language)
Azúcar is a very special case. Its a is unstressed, and yet it usually takes el even when feminine:
- el azúcar refinada (el azúcar refinado and la azúcar refinada are also possible)
N.B.: this feminine el does not have the same origin as the masculine el. The latter is from the Old Castilian ele, whereas the former is from ela, just as la is. This historic finesse is lost to those who use non-standard forms such as los águilas.
There is also a "neuter article", used before adjectives, that make them work like nouns:
- lo bueno = "what is good, the good stuff"
- lo importante = "the important thing"
- lo indefinible = "the indefinable"
- lo desconocido = "the unknown"
[edit] Indefinite articles
- un hombre = "a man"
- una mujer = "a woman"
- unos hombres = "some men"
- unas mujeres = "some women"
Near synonyms of unos include: unos cuantos, algunos and unos pocos.
As in English, the plural indefinite article is not always required.
- Hay [unas] cosas en la mesa = "There are [some] things on the table"
[edit] Possessive determiners
These are often known as possessive or genitive determiners. They are used before the noun they possess (and before the rest of the whole noun phrase, for example when an adjective precedes the noun). They agree in number with the noun, and sometimes in gender too.
- 1st person singular (yo): mi(s)
- 2nd person singular (tú): tu(s)
- 3rd person singular (él, ella): su(s)
- 1st person plural (nosotros/as): nuestro/a(s)
- 2nd person plural(vosotros/as): vuestro/a(s)
- 3rd person plural (ellos/as): su(s)
Note the following:
- There is no distinction in number for the third person possessives (i.e. between "his"/"her"/"its" and "their").
- The possessive for usted and ustedes is su(s) as for other third-person pronouns. The ambiguity that this causes (especially considering that su(s) already covers "his", "her", "its" and "their") can be allieviated by treating usted(es) as a noun and thereby saying la casa de ustedes instead of su casa. It is also possible to disambiguate by saying la casa de él or la casa de ella, etc.
Dialectal variation:
- The archaic pronoun vos has the possessive form vuestro, just like vosotros does. However, in modern dialectal use, tu replaces vuestro. Therefore, an Argentinian would say Che, decime tu dirección rather than decidme vuestra dirección or dime tu dirección.
- Dialectally, usted/ustedes may replace tú/vosotros without any intention to be formal. The corresponding possessive determiner su(s) is used. Therefore, a Colombian may say Hijo, enséñeme sus deberes instead of Hijo, enséñame tus deberes ("Son, show me your homework").
[edit] Combining demonstratives and possessives
Demonstrative pronouns can be combines with possessives as follows:
- Esta nuestra tierra = "This Earth of ours"
- Este mi amor = "This love of mine"
Strictly speaking, the presence of the first determiner means that the possessive must be interpreted as an adjective rather than a determiner. Note however that the normal adjectival form (mío, tuyo, suyo...) is not used in this construction.
It is also possible to use the normal adjectival form. In this case, it goes after the noun.
- Esta tierra nuestra = "This Earth of ours"
- Este amor mío = "This love of mine"
[edit] Miscellaneous determiners
There are many more words that can be used as determiners in Spanish. They mostly end in -o and have the usual four forms (-o, -a, -os, -as) to agree with their noun.
- ¡Otra cerveza, por favor! = "Another beer, please!"
- Mucha gente pasa por aquí = "A lot of people come through here"
- No hay tanta gente como en verano = "There aren't as many people as in summer"
- Ciertos vinos son muy dulces = "Certain wines are very sweet"
- He salido con varias chicas = "I've been out with several girls"
