Demonstrative Pronouns: celui, celle, ceux, celles
നിർദ്ദേശകസർവ്വനാമങ്ങൾ: celui, celle, ceux, celles
You already learned ce/cet/cette/ces as demonstrative adjectives sitting in front of a noun (ce livre, 'this book'). Now the noun disappears and the pointing word stands alone — 'this one', 'that one' — and French still forces it to agree in gender and number with whatever it replaces, a habit Malayalam speakers won't already have since Malayalam nouns and pronouns carry no grammatical gender at all.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
Four forms, agreeing with the noun replaced
J'aime ce livre-ci, pas celui-là. (I like this book, not that one)
എനിക്ക് ഈ പുസ്തകം ഇഷ്ടമാണ്, അത് അല്ല. (celui = ആ/ഈ ഒന്ന്, ലിംഗഭേദമില്ലാതെ)
celui (masc. sg.), celle (fem. sg.), ceux (masc. pl.), celles (fem. pl.) never stand alone — French requires one of -ci/-là, de + noun, or a relative clause (qui/que) right after it. Malayalam has no grammatical gender to track here: ഇത്/അത് (this one/that one) and ഇവ/അവ (these/those) already work as pronouns without agreeing with any noun class, so the entirely new habit for a Malayalam speaker is remembering that celui/celle/ceux/celles must match the gender and number of the noun being replaced, not of the speaker or listener.
-ci and -là: pointing near vs. far
celui-ci (this one, near) / celui-là (that one, far)
ഇത് (അടുത്ത്) / അത് (ദൂരെ)
Attach -ci for something close and -là for something farther away — this lines up neatly with Malayalam's own ഇത്/അത് near/far distinction (and ഇവിടെ/അവിടെ for place). -ci/-là can also contrast two things already mentioned in a sentence: celui-ci... celui-là... works like 'the latter... the former...', a pairing Malayalam usually handles by simply repeating ഇത്/അത് or restating the noun.
celui de + noun = possession, no repeating the noun
Ma voiture est plus rapide que celle de Paul. (My car is faster than Paul's — literally 'that of Paul')
എന്റെ കാർ പോളിന്റെ കാറിനെക്കാൾ വേഗതയുള്ളതാണ്. (celle de Paul = 'പോളിന്റേത്')
Rather than repeating the noun (celle de Paul instead of la voiture de Paul again), French swaps in the matching demonstrative pronoun plus de. Malayalam reaches for the same shortcut just as naturally, by adding the genitive suffix -ന്റെ/-ുടെ directly to the owner and dropping the noun: പോളിന്റേത് ('Paul's one') works exactly like celle de Paul, minus any gender to track.
celui qui / celui que + relative clause
Prends celui qui te plaît. (Take the one that you like)
നിനക്ക് ഇഷ്ടമുള്ളത് എടുത്തോളൂ. (celui qui = 'ഏതാണോ ഇഷ്ടം, അത്')
celui/celle/ceux/celles can be followed directly by a relative clause with qui (subject) or que (object) instead of -ci/-là or de. Malayalam expresses the same 'the one that...' idea with a relative participle placed before a bare pronoun-like ending: ഇഷ്ടമുള്ളത് ('the one that is liked') folds the whole relative clause into a single participle plus -ത് ('the thing/one'), with no separate word standing in for 'that' the way French needs qui/que.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- ഇത്/അത് (ലിംഗഭേദമില്ല)idhu/athu
- English
- this one / that one (masc. sg.)
- Malayalam
- ഇത്/അത് (സ്ത്രീലിംഗ നാമത്തിന്)idhu/athu
- English
- this one / that one (fem. sg.)
- Malayalam
- ഇവ/അവ (പുരുഷലിംഗ ബഹുവചനം)iva/ava
- English
- these / those (masc. pl.)
- Malayalam
- ഇവ/അവ (സ്ത്രീലിംഗ ബഹുവചനം)iva/ava
- English
- these / those (fem. pl.)
- Malayalam
- ഇത് / അത്idhu / athu
- English
- this one (here) / that one (there)
- Malayalam
- ...ന്റേത്...nteth
- English
- the one belonging to...