FRENCH NOTE 65 USE OF " CEUX "

FRENCH NOTE 65

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS ( SIMPLE)

We have already dealt with " CELUI " and " CELLE" which are the masculine singular and feminine singular forms.

CEUX


CELLES

The above are the plural forms of " CELUI " and " CELLES" respectively . Now let us study some examples . They are used for both persons and things in French .


1.Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Ceux qui se trouvent dans les maisons en verre ne doivent pas jeter des pierres.

" Ceux qui" is just a plural form of " Celui".


2.  Here are your books. Take them. The ones  on the table are mine.


Voici tes livres. Prenez-les.  Ceux qui se trouvent sur la table sont les miens.


This example is just to show you that " Ceux"  can be used to denote nouns other than

persons.


3.  What women want, God wants them.

Ceux que les femmes veulent , Dieu les veut.

The above example is to show you the use of " Ceux que" which is the object of the

verb " vouloir" which follows it.


4.  Those whom I know do not live here.

Ceux que je connais n'habitent pas ici.


5.   My pants are black. Those of my brother are white.

Mes pantalons sont noirs. Ceux de mon frère sont blancs.

The above example is just to show you that " Ceux" can be used with a preposition . Here

the preposition is " de".  It can be used with other prepositions like " pour" , " dans" etc.

Hope , by now, you have understood how to use these demonstrative pronouns. While

reading or listening to French texts, kindly make a note of them. You can construct as many

sentences as possible using them.

I will continue the same topic in my subsequent posts.

Please point out inadvertent errors if any.

Happy learning !


Sayee Jayaraman

1/04/2015