Demonstrative Pronouns: celui, celle, ceux, celles
संकेतवाचक सर्वनाम: celui, celle, ceux, celles
English has one all-purpose placeholder word for 'this/that as a standalone thing' — 'one' — that never changes shape. Hindi has a much closer parallel to French here: वाला/वाली/वाले, a suffix that turns यह/वह into a standalone pronoun and inflects for gender and number, just like French's celui/celle/ceux/celles.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
The four forms agree with the noun being replaced ≈ Hindi's वाला/वाली/वाले
J'aime ce livre-ci, mais je préfère celui-là.
मुझे यह किताब पसंद है, पर मुझे वह वाली ज़्यादा पसंद है।
celui (masc. sg.), celle (fem. sg.), ceux (masc. pl.), celles (fem. pl.) each replace a specific noun and must match its gender and number — celui here stands for livre (masculine), so it's celui, not celle. Hindi has a genuinely close cousin to this: वाला/वाली/वाले, attached to यह/वह/कौन-सा, agrees with the noun it's replacing the same way — वह वाली किताब ('that one', feminine, for किताब) versus वह वाला घर ('that one', masculine, for घर). Unlike an English speaker, who has no gendered 'one' to draw on at all, a Hindi speaker already owns a genuinely comparable agreement system — you're mapping a known mechanism onto new French words, not inventing the whole idea from scratch.
-ci and -là mark 'this one' vs. 'that one' ≈ यह वाला/वाली vs. वह वाला/वाली
Quelle robe préfères-tu ? Celle-ci ou celle-là ?
तुम्हें कौन-सी पोशाक पसंद है? यह वाली या वह वाली?
A bare celui/celle/ceux/celles cannot stand alone as a full pronoun — it needs something attached, most commonly -ci ('this one', nearer) or -là ('that one', farther). Hindi builds the identical near/far distinction by keeping यह ('this') or वह ('that') attached to वाली/वाला rather than adding a suffix to the pronoun itself — यह वाली ('this one') and वह वाली ('that one') do exactly the job of celle-ci/celle-là. The underlying shape — a gendered placeholder pronoun that needs a near/far marker to be complete — is one Hindi already has; you're just relearning it with -ci/-là instead of यह/वह.
celui de + noun = possession
Ma voiture est plus rapide que celle de mon frère.
मेरी कार मेरे भाई वाली से तेज़ है।
Instead of celui-ci/celui-là, the pronoun can be followed by de + a noun to show possession — celle stands in for voiture and de mon frère supplies the owner. Hindi can build a similar compact structure with वाली + owner: मेरे भाई वाली ('my brother's one'), though it's just as natural in Hindi to simply repeat the possessed noun (मेरे भाई की कार) rather than drop it the way French insists on doing. French's celle de mon frère forces the noun-dropping that Hindi only optionally reaches for.
celui qui / celui que + relative clause
Celui qui arrive en premier gagne.
जो पहले पहुँचता है, वह जीतता है।
celui/celle/ceux/celles can also be followed directly by a relative clause with qui or que, giving the sense of 'the one(s) who/that...' or 'whoever/whatever'. This maps directly onto the जो...वह correlative structure Hindi already uses for relative clauses generally: जो पहले पहुँचता है, वह जीतता है mirrors celui qui arrive en premier gagne piece for piece — जो standing in for qui, वह standing in for celui. This compact French structure is closer to an existing Hindi habit than to anything in English.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- वालाvālā
- English
- this one / that one (masc. sg.)
- Hindi
- वालीvālī
- English
- this one / that one (fem. sg.)
- Hindi
- वालेvāle
- English
- these / those (masc. pl.)
- Hindi
- वालीvālī
- English
- these / those (fem. pl.)
- Hindi
- यह वाला / वह वालाyah vālā/vah vālā
- English
- this one (here) / that one (there)
- Hindi
- का वालाkā vālā
- English
- that of / the one belonging to
- Hindi
- जो...वहjo...vah
- English
- the one who (subject)
- Hindi
- जिसे...वहjise...vah
- English
- the one that (object)
- Hindi
- जोjo
- English
- what (subject) / what (object)