¡hola! I need help with este, éste, etc.

[bleitzow]

Can someone explain to me the difference in the words below and when to correctly use them? I am not familiar with the "imperative, subjective" parts of the English language so if you try to explain it using those, I won't understand. Real life examples are easier for me to relate to.

Esta
Este
Ésta
Éste
Esto

Sample sentences:

Éste es mi bebe
Este animal es rápido
Ésta es mi cama
Ésta es mi amiga

Este animal no puede nadar
Este hombre no puede andar

I thought at first the éste and este were related to person and animal. Then I came across the next two sentences. I´m so confused!

Can anyone help?

¡muchas gracias!
Brenda

[Tomisimo]

Hi Brenda and welcome!

Este and Esta
These are modifiers, you can think of them as adjectives that simply means this. The reason there are two of them, is because Spanish has feminine and masculine nouns. Este goes with masculine nouns and esta goes with feminine nouns.

esta cosa pegajosa - this sticky stuff
esta mujer es guapa - this woman is beautiful
esta mariposa es amarilla - this butterfly is yellow
este hombre habla mucho - this man talks a lot
este coche me gusta - I like this car
este libro es bueno - this book is good.

este and esta are used right before nouns.

Éste and Ésta
These words both mean "this one" in English. They are used to take the place of a noun, just like the phrase this one in English. There are two separate words again... one is for masculine nouns and one for feminine.

Examples:

Éste es rojo - this one is red (whatever it is, it's masculine)
Ésta se te ve mejor - (whatever it is it's feminine)
Éste es mi esposo - This guy is my husband
Éste es mi hijo - This one is my son
Ésta es mi hija - This one is my daughter

Note that éste and ésta are being used right before the verb. They are the subjects of those sentences, just like this one or this guy in English.

Esto
Esto is an indefinite way to refer to something that you don´t know if it's feminine or masculine. It also means this in English.

For example, talking about some situation:

Esto me tiene harto - I am fed up with this.

I hope that helps you

Moving thread to Grammar.

[bleitzow]

David,

¡Muy muchas gracias! Yo preguntaré mis amigos y nadie no sabran.

Voy a preguntar más preguntas. ¡Otra vez, muchas gracias!

Brenda

[poli]

Éste ésta ésto mean this. Éstes estas estos mean these.
Ese, esa eso means that. Eses, esas, esos mean those.
Aquel, aquella means that also but further away.

[sina]

Gracias!

[Jessica]

this is very useful