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Sextus Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Re: these/those - corrected

Well, the general difference is the same as that between "ceux/celles + noun-ci" (these) and "ceux/celles + noun-là" (those), when they're adjectives. And, of course, without the noun when they're pronouns.

Sextus
  

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Thanx Sextus, I'm not a native French speaker (Polish, currently in Belgium), well, it's helpful, but I'm used to learning languages in a descriptive way, if u know what I mean... Are you sure that celles-ci, ceux'ci, etc, is a good translation... not 100% convinced...

— SylviaS

  • Thanx Sextus, I'm not a native French speaker (Polish, currently in Belgium), well, it's helpful, but I'm used to learning languages in a descriptive way, if u know what I mean...
  • Are you sure that celles-ci, ceux'ci, etc, is a good translation...
  • not 100% convinced...
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6 Answers
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Thanx Sextus, I'm not a native French speaker (Polish, currently in Belgium), well, it's helpful, but I'm used to learning languages in a descriptive way, if u know what I mean... Are you sure that celles-ci, ceux'ci, etc, is a good translation... not 100% convinced...
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I didn't say that they're good translations in the case of all the examples you've given, but just that they're the general translations.

Sextus
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thanx Sextus, well, yes, I know, in general maybe, but the usage is quite different I would argue, they're not used so often in French in the first place......sais pas...
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For instance:

"Sonny has many qualities worth recognizing, and the purpose of this letter is to point out two of these/those qualities."

"This" letter refers to the letter the writer is writing at the moment. For instance, the purpose of this message is to explain the meanings of "these" and "those" to you. "These/those qualities", well, I suppose that most people would use "tho
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'In this case, it is not the same use as in the former, but I don't know how to explain it. The only thing I can say is that in French I would say: "...sont parmi ceux qui..."

Yes, but look, here you can only use 'ceux' in French, there is no other option, right? (whereas in EN u have choice bt those and these....) ouff....
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No, in the second example, there's no option in English; you can only use "those". It is not possible to say "are among these who".

Sextus
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