Demonstratives: acest, acela, and their forms

Romanian demonstratives point to a nearby or more distant person or thing. Before a noun, acest means “this” and acel means “that”; standing alone, the full forms are acesta and acela: Acest caiet este nou. (This notebook is new.)

What are the near and far forms?

Choose the acest- series for a nearby or current referent and the acel- series for a more distant or less immediate one; then match gender and number. The pronoun can stand alone, while the determiner comes before a noun.

How do you use a demonstrative as a pronoun?

Use the full form by itself when it replaces a noun that is understood from the situation or conversation. It can refer to people or things: Acesta este biletul meu. (This one is my ticket.) Acelea sunt scaunele noastre. (Those are our chairs.)

• A pronoun can be the subject: Aceasta este cheia. (This one is the key.)
• A pronoun can be a direct object. In a complete clause, an independent demonstrative direct object uses pe and a matching clitic: Îl vreau pe acela. (I want that one.) See Romanian object pronoun doubling for the full pattern.
• The form still agrees with the understood noun. For a neuter noun, use acesta or acela in the singular and acestea or acelea in the plural: Acesta este un hotel; acestea sunt hoteluri. (This one is a hotel; these are hotels.)

How do you use a demonstrative before a noun?

Use the shorter pre-nominal form before the noun: acest student, not acesta student, and acea problemă, not aceea problemă. The noun does not take a separate indefinite or definite article after this pre-nominal demonstrative.

Neuter nouns follow the masculine-looking pattern in the singular and the feminine-looking pattern in the plural. That is why Romanian says acest hotel (this hotel) but aceste hoteluri (these hotels), and acel muzeu (that museum) but acele muzee (those museums).

What changes in the basic cases?

For A2 use, learn nominative-accusative forms as one group and recognize that genitive and dative share another group of forms. The pronoun and the pre-nominal determiner have different shapes in the genitive-dative.

The genitive-dative pronoun forms replace a noun: Cartea aceleia este aici. (That one's book is here.) The pre-nominal forms modify a noun: I-am dat cartea acestui student. (I gave the book to this student.) At this level, use the table to recognize the form and its agreement; the full Romanian case system has further details.

How does near differ from far?

The near series presents a referent as close to the speaker, the listener, or the current topic: Acest film este scurt. (This film is short.) The far series presents it as farther away, earlier or later in time, or less immediate in the discussion: Acel film este mai lung. (That film is longer.) The choice is about the speaker's viewpoint, so “far” does not always mean a measurable physical distance.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not use the pronoun as a pre-nominal determiner: use acest student, not acesta student; use acele cărți, not acelea cărți.
• Do not use the pre-nominal determiner alone: use Acesta este studentul meu. (This one is my student.), not Acest este studentul meu.
• Do not give a neuter plural noun the masculine-plural form: aceste hoteluri and acele muzee are correct, not acești hoteluri or acei muzee.
• The familiar forms ăsta, asta, ăștia, astea and ăla, aia, ăia, alea belong to a separate short/postposed demonstrative topic. They are not the neutral full forms taught in this article.