Demonstrative pronouns are an essential part of the French language that help us avoid repetition by replacing nouns with more concise words. In this post we will look at the different categories of French demonstrative pronouns, including celui, celle, ceux, celles, ce, ceci, cela, as well as other variations.

We will explain in detail how they work and when it’s appropriate to use each one, providing helpful examples to get you started on your journey toward mastering the demonstrative pronouns in French. Now let’s get started!

French demonstrative pronouns: The basics

A demonstrative pronoun refers to a thing, a being, or a concept that is already known. It replaces a noun and points to it while avoiding being repetitive. In French, they are called les pronoms démonstratifs.

In English, they would translate to something like the one, the ones, this, that, those, these, or it, depending on the pronoun. Here is an easy example of how they can be used in a conversation:

• That kitten is so small! / Which one? / The one located on the left. – Ce chaton est tellement petit! / Lequel? / Celui qui se trouve à gauche.

That kitten has been mentioned once before and can therefore be replaced by the simple demonstrative pronoun celui in the next sentence, since we know what we are talking about.

The French demonstrative pronouns are divided into 3 categories:

• Simple demonstrative pronouns

• Compound demonstrative pronouns

• Indefinite demonstrative pronouns

Here’s a summary table of all the demonstrative pronouns in French:

Don’t worry, we’ll explain in depth how and when to use them all in the next sections!

Simple demonstrative pronouns: celui, celle, ceux, celles

The simple demonstrative pronouns in French are celui, celle, ceux, and celles. In English, they can roughly translate to the one or the ones:

As mentioned earlier, French demonstrative pronouns aim to distinguish one or several specific item(s) without mentioning it or them explicitly. In the case of simple demonstrative pronouns, the noun they replace must refer to real things such as a person, an animal, an object, etc. They also need to agree in gender and number with the noun in question.

How to use simple demonstrative pronouns

There are a few particular situations where we can use the simple demonstrative pronouns in French:

1. When the pronoun is followed by a preposition (such as de, à, en, avec, sans, etc.).

• Those plastic chairs are nice. But I prefer the wooden ones. – Ces chaises en plastique sont chouettes. Mais je prefère celles en bois.

• Whose bag is this? / That is Claire’s [one]. – À qui est ce sac? / C’est celui de Claire.

• These candies look yummy. How much are the strawberry-flavored ones? – Ces bonbons ont l’air délicieux. Combien coûtent ceux à la fraise?

2. When the pronoun is followed by a relative pronoun (such as que, qui, dont, où, lequel, etc.).

• Which singer are you talking about? The one who we went to see in concert? – Tu parles de quelle chanteuse? Celle que l’on est allé voir en concert?

• Those who are late will be punished by the teacher. – Ceux qui sont en retard seront punis par le professeur.

• I like this restaurant. You know, the one where Paul works. – J’aime bien ce restaurant. Tu sais, celui où Paul travaille.

3. When a pronoun is followed by a participe passé.

• There were over 100 sculptures at the exhibit. The ones made by famous artists were all sold. – Il y avait plus de 100 sculptures à l’expo. Celles fabriquées par des artistes célèbres ont toutes été vendues.

• Our association collects trash on the beach every weekend. Those [pieces of trash] collected last week will be recycled today. – Notre association ramasse les déchets sur la plage chaque weekend. Ceux ramassés la semaine dernière seront recyclés aujourd’hui.

To sum up, simple demonstrative pronouns are always followed by a complement (preposition, relative pronoun, participe passé) which gives some information about the noun being replaced.

Compound demonstrative pronouns: The particles -ci and -là

Compound demonstrative pronouns are used to underline how near or far (in time, in space, or to the subject matter) the speaker is compared to the noun being referred to. They can also help indicate a distinction between two different objects which are at different relative distances.

In English, the particles -ci and -là correspond respectively to this and that, so the compound demonstrative pronouns in French have the following English equivalents:

How to use compound demonstrative pronouns

Similarly to simple demonstrative pronouns, compound demonstrative pronouns need to refer to tangible nouns and to agree in gender and number with them. They are used when a sentence doesn’t include any preposition, relative pronoun, or participe passé.

Thus, the complement that’s missing from the construction we saw with simple demonstrative pronouns is replaced with the particles -ci and -là.

We add -ci if the noun is close, and -là if the noun is farther away. There’s definitely some room for subjectivity in terms of how close or far something is, so don’t worry if you’re unsure whether to choose -ci vs -là. Let’s see a few examples:

• Do you prefer this one or that one over there? – Tu préfères celui-ci ou celui-là là-bas?

• These dresses are pretty. Is this one discounted? – Ces robes sont jolies. Est-ce que celle-ci est en promotion?

• I don’t like this color. I will take that one instead. – Je n’aime pas cette couleur-ci. Je vais prendre celle-là plutôt.

• These ones seem bigger than those ones. – Ceux-ci ont l’air plus grand que ceux-là.

• Those ones in the middle are perfect! – Celles-là au milieu sont parfaites!

Indefinite demonstrative pronouns: ce (c’), ceci, cela (ça)

The French indefinite pronouns are ce (c’), ceci, and cela (ça). In contrast to the simple and compound demonstrative pronouns, the indefinite demonstrative pronouns in French are considered neutral and are only used to refer to indefinite ideas or statements previously mentioned. This means they can actually replace a whole group of words like part of a sentence.

How to use indefinite demonstrative pronouns

Ceci and cela are more suitable for writing, whereas ça (short for cela) is reserved for casual conversation. In English, ceci can loosely be translated to this (near in time, in space, or to the subject matter) or it, and cela and ça to that (far away in time, space, or subject) or it. Let’s see some examples:

• You said you didn’t want to go. / No, I didn’t say that! – Tu as dit que tu ne voulais pas y aller. / Non, je n’ai pas dit ça!

• I don’t think it is possible. – Je ne crois pas que cela soit possible.

• Ceci n’a rien à voir avec cela. – This doesn’t have anything to do with that.

Ce is special because it can only be used with the verb être conjugated in the 3rd-person singular or plural. When it is followed by conjugated forms of the verb être that start with a vowel, such as est or était, ce contracts to c’.

• You did it. That‘s great! – Tu as réussi. C’est génial!

• That is not my fault. – Ce n’est pas ma faute.

• It‘s the neighbors who did that. – Ce sont les voisins qui ont fait ça.

• It was very interesting. – C’était très interessant.

These expressions formed with the demonstrative pronoun ce are so fundamental that we have a full post looking at c’est and ce sont.

Demonstrative pronouns vs Demonstrative adjectives

Let’s quickly go over the difference between French demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives so you don’t confuse them. Do you remember our first example with the kitten?

• That kitten is so small! / Which one? / The one located on the left. – Ce chaton est tellement petit! / Lequel? / Celui qui se trouve à gauche.

We already saw that celui is a demonstrative pronoun, since it replaces ce chaton entirely. But what about the word ce itself? Well, this ce before chaton is a demonstrative adjective.

In English, demonstrative adjectives are usually translated to this, that, these, and those. They are used to identify a specific noun and always precede the noun they identify.

On the other hand, a demonstrative pronoun takes the place of the demonstrative adjective and the noun together. That is how ce chaton becomes celui.

Note that the French word ce can either be used before a noun as a demonstrative adjective, or in place of a noun as a demonstrative pronoun. Check out our detailed guide to demonstrative adjectives for more on how to use them.

Conclusion

To recap, we saw that French demonstrative pronouns serve as a shorter substitute to refer to previously mentioned nouns, and sometimes entire statements. They can loosely be translated to this/that [one], these/those [ones] or it, depending on the situation.

We went through the 3 categories of demonstrative pronouns: simple (celui, celle, ceux, celles), compound (celui-ci/celui-là, celle-ci/celle-là, ceux-ci/ceux-là, celles-ci/celles-là), and indefinite (ce/c’, ceci, cela/ça). We noted that except for indefinite demonstrative pronouns which are neutral, they all have to agree in gender and number with the noun they replace.

We also explained that the choice of which category of pronoun to use mainly depends on what kinds of things they are being used to refer to, as well as what element is present in the sentence to be created. Finally, we covered the difference between demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.

In short, the French demonstrative pronouns are a versatile group of words used to refer to things which have already been mentioned. It’s just necessary to know the gender and number of the object being referred to, and then choose the right pronoun for the sentence structure!