8.12 Demonstrative Pronoun

Demonstratives act as adjectives or as pronouns - demonstrative pronouns behave similar to predicate adjectives

  • As we saw in the example הוּא הָאִישׁ, a demonstrative pronoun takes the place of a noun as the subject of a clause78
  • The behavior of the demonstrative pronoun is a lot like the Predicative Adjective use:
    • Always comes before the noun (Pronoun Perpetually Precedes)79
    • Does NOT have the article (Pronoun dePrived of article)
    • Matches Gender and Number
      • זֹאת הַמַּלְכָּה = this is the queen (FS)
      • זֶה הַמֶּ֫לֶךְ = this is the king (MS)
  • These are the words that Moses spoke (Deuteronomy 1:1)

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN MNEMONIC

Demonstrative Pronoun Perpetually Precedes, Perpetually dePrived of article

  1. When הוּא הָאִישׁ means “he is the man”, the personal pronoun “he” is the subject↩︎

  2. In this respect, the word order matches our English translation. זֹאת הַמַּלְכָּה = “This (is) the queen.” Remember the predicate adjective can be before or after the noun it is modifying.↩︎