Demonstrative Adjectives in French

Demonstrative adjectives communicate information about the distance of an item in relation to the speaker. In English, "this," "that," "these," and "those" are the demonstrative articles - meaning we differentiate by number ("this" and "that" are singular; "these" and "those" are plural) and by distance ("this" and "these" are near; "that" and "those" are far). In French, we don't make those same distinctions about the distance, but we show the gender (masculine or feminine) and the number (singular or plural). Here are the demonstrative adjectives in French:


Ce becomes Cet before a noun beginning with a, e, i, o, u and a silent h. Examples:
Ce garcon [This boy]
Ces garcons [These boys]
Cet arbre [This tree]
Ces arbres [These trees]
Cette fleur [This flower]
Ces fleurs [these flowers]