The Loom Of Language

374 The Loom of Language
The following French examples illustrate the use of the eight pro-
nouns corresponding to ths-these or that-those (see table p 373), when
they refer to (a) le chapeau (the hat), (6) les chapeaux (the hats), (c) la
nozx (the nut), (d) les naix (the nuts)
(a) je pt efere celui-ci }e prefere celuz4d
I prefer this one I prefer that one
(&) Ceiix-ci sent trap cher\ Ceu^-la sont trap chers
These are too dear Those are too dear
(c) Casse celle-ci Casse celle-ld
Break this one Break that one
(d) Elk a achete celles-a Elk a achete celles-ld
She has bought these She has bought those
There are two other French pronouns, cea and cela (commonly
abbreviated to cd) corresponding respectively to this and that, e g ne
dites pas fa = don't say that. We can never use them for persons Ce (c5)
often stands for its e g c*est vrai = it is true, c'est tnste = it is sad
After the invariant ce> the adjective can keep the masculine singular
form, e g c'est ban may mean either il est bon or die est bonne according
as */ refers to le vin or elle to la btere. This is useful to know, when we
are in doubt about the gender of a noun The French for the former ...
the latter is celui-la . celui-a
This is a pointer-word pure and simple That can also be a link-word,
and as such appears twice in the table of link pronouns It does so
because we use it in two ways.
(a) THAT so printed occurs after such verbs as knozu3 doubty deny, hope,
wish> fear> dread We can usually omit it> but we can never replace
it by who or which Its Romance equivalent as given in the table
cannot be left out, e g
English I know that he ts lying
French je sais qu'il ment
Portuguese sei que minte
Spanish se" que miente
Italian so che mente
(&) that so printed may refer to some word in the preceding clause and
is then replaceable We can put who, whom, or which in place of
it (e g the house that Jack built = the house which Jack built}
To translate that in all circumstances we therefore need to know
equivalents for who> which> whom., and whose when such words link two
clauses. Choice is complicated (a) by case-forms like whom or whose for
use with or without an accompanying preposition, (&) by the distinc-