This, That and My 1
This & That
Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives
- As in English, the same words (this, that, those, etc.) are used as demonstrative pronouns (DP) (to point out something) and demonstrative adjectives (DA) (to say that something has some characteristic - red, big, etc.).
Word order - Demonstrative Pronouns
- When used as a pronoun, the word order is Demonstrative Pronoun + Noun/Noun phrase (Subject(S)) + Verb.
- Examples:
- Hau (DP) kotxea(S) da(V). : This is the car. (lit: This car is.)
- Hau (DP) kotxe(N) gorria(A) da(V). : This is the red car.(note: “kotxe gorria” is a noun phrase that is the object of the sentence and “Hau” is the subject.
Word order - Demonstrative Adjectives
- When used as an adjective, the Demonstrative Adjectives (DA) is the last item in the noun phrase (Noun (N), Adjective(A), demonstrative adjective(DA) and is used with a complementary adjective(CA) and a verb(V).
- Note that when a demonstrative adjective is used, adjectives and noun in the rest of the noun phrase use the plain form (gorri not gorria or gorriak).
- Examples:
- Kotxe(N) hau(DA) gorria(CA) da(V).: This car is red.
- Kotxe(N) gorri(A) hau (S(DA)) handia(CA) da(V). : This red car is big. (Note in the subject noun phrase “Kotxe gorri hau” neither kotxe or gorri have a grammatical ending as hau fills that role.
Vocabulary This & To Whom 1
- hau: this
- hauek: these (plural of hau)
- hori: that
- horiek: those (plural of hori)
- hura: that over there (also 3d person single pronoun “he/she/it”)
- haiek: Those over there (plural of hura and also 3d person plural pronoun “they”)
- eskola: school
- liburu: book