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ReadingRussian Demonstrative Pronouns
Russian grammar --> Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are words used to point out a person or an object (in English, these are pronouns "this", "these", "that" and "those"). Russian demonstrative pronouns have two distinct forms: этот and тот. Этот is usually used to point out a person or an object that is nearer to the speaker, while тот refers to a person or an object which is more distant from the speaker.
Russian demonstrative pronouns agree in gender, number and case of nouns they modify. In other words, they decline, and their behavior in a phrase or sentence is similar to the behavior of adjectives. For this reason, they are sometimes called demonstrative pronominal adjectives.
эта лампа - this lamp
эти билеты - these tickets
The pronoun этот this changes its form according to the gender and number of the modified nouns.
The tables below present the complete declensions of Russian possessive pronouns. Notice that they reflect the animacy of the modified nouns and obey the declension rule of animate/inanimate referents in the accusative forms.
Этот
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| Nom | этот | это | эта | эти |
| Gen | этого | этой | этих | |
| Dat | этому | этой | этим | |
| Acc | Nom/Gen | это | эту | Nom/Gen |
| Ins | этим | этой | этими | |
| Prep | этом | этой | этих | |
Тот
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| Nom | тот | то | та | те |
| Gen | того | той | тех | |
| Dat | тому | той | тем | |
| Acc | Nom/Gen | то | ту | Nom/Gen |
| Ins | тем | той | теми | |
| Prep | том | той | тех | |