Lesson 7 - Demonstrative & interrogative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns (In English this, these, that and those) and interrogative pronouns (which, who and what) form pairs as shown in the following table:

Demonstrative	Interrogative
tio (that)	kio (what)
tiu (that)	kiu (which, who)
tiuj (those)	kiuj (which, who)

Several points should be noted about these Esperanto pronouns.

Point 1: Both tio and tiu are translated as that into English, but these demonstratives should not be mixed up. tio corresponds to the interrogative kio while tiu corresponds to kiu. Here are some examples that illustrate the difference:

Kio estas tio? = What is that?
Tio estas pomarbo = That is an apple-tree

Kion¹ li donis al shi? = What did he give her?
Li donis tion al shi = He gave that to her.

Kiu estas tiu? = Who is he (lit. that one)? ²
Tiu estas mia patro = He (that one) is my father.

Kiun pomon li donis al shi? = Which apple did he gave to her?
Li donis tiun pomon al shi = He gave her that apple.

¹ Note that these pronouns are declined too, so kion has the accusative ending -n because it is the object of the sentence.

² "Kiu estas li?" would also be good Esperanto.

The words kio and tio are never used with nouns. They can in fact be regarded as nouns themselves, which is why they have the -o ending. On the other hand kiu and tiu can be used with a noun or without one. But even if a noun is missing one could still be substituted. In English we would use in such a case the place-holder one (which one, that one). Since kiu can be interpreted as which one there is in Esperanto no need for a separate word for who (which person).

Point 2: We can use the particle chi with tio and tiu. Because this particle indicates proximity tio chi and tiu chi mean this in English (chi can be put either in front of or behind the pronoun). Nothe that although the accompanying tio or tiu are sometimes declined, chi is never changed.

Kio estas tio chi? = What is this?
Tio chi estas pomarbo = This is an apple-tree

Kion li donis al shi? = What did he give her?
Li donis chi tion al shi = He gave this to her.

Kiu estas tiu chi? = Who is he (lit. this one)?
Chi tiu estas mia patro = He (this one) is my father.

Kiun pomon li donis al shi? = Which apple did he gave to her?
Li donis tiun chi pomon al shi = He gave her this apple.

**Vocabulary**
Esperanto	English
Afriko	Africa
autuno	autumn
birdo	a bird
dormi	to sleep (cf. dormant)
Europo	Europe
flugi	to fly
kushi	to lie (e.g. in bed, cf. couch)
legi	to read (cf. legible)
ne^*	not
onklo	an uncle
patro	a father (cf. paternal)
printempo	spring (season)
vojaghi	to travel

^* Negative sentences are usually made in Esperanto by putting ne in front of the main verb (e.g. "Mi ne volas havi ghin").

Exercise 7-1

Translate into English:

1. En la¹ autuno tiuj chi birdoj flugas al Afriko kaj en la printempo ili flugas al Europo. 2. Ni ne volas vojaghi kun tiuj viroj. 3. Kiu estas tiu chi? 4. Tiu chi estas mia patro. 5. Kaj kiuj² estas tiuj? 6. Tiuj estas miaj onkloj. 7. Kio estas tio? 8. Tio ne estas kato sed hundo. 9. Kiun auton vi achetis? 10. Mi achetis tiun flavan auton. 11. Tiuj birdoj flugos al Afriko. 12. Tiuj chi infanoj ludis en la ghardeno, kaj tiuj ludis en la domo. 13. Shiaj infanoj dormas en chi tiu chambro. 14. Tiu chi segho estas nova.

¹ In Esperanto the names of seasons are usually used with the definite article la.

² In English that and this have the plural forms those and these but there is only one form for who. However, note that the Esperanto equivalent of who has a plural form that should be used when asking about more than one person.

Exercise 7-2

Translate into Esperanto:

1. I shall give them these apples and those pears. 2. Who is going to his house? 3. Whom (sing.) did you gave the water to? 4. What did he write? 5. He wrote this. 6. I want to buy those yellow apples. 7. Who was there? 8. Who were there? 9. Those potatoes were growing in her garden. 10. That is a cat. 11. That one is a cat. 12. I am not going to sleep in this room. 13. The dog was lying under that table.

Key to the exercises