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All most helpful.
Esses carros são nossos – these cars are ours. Should that read “those cars are ours”?
Yes! I have amended now. Thank you for letting me know and well done for spotting it!
I don’t understand when to use ‘isto’ and ‘issi’ and ‘esta’ ‘essa’ ‘esta’ and ‘esse’ they all use the term this or that.(I understand the femmine/masc. bit in the latter).
Hi Cassie.
It is not as complicated as it may seem. I will break it down.
Isto / este / esta – are referring to things close to you
Isso / esse / essa – are referring to things near to the person you speak to, just like English.
Isto & isso – are used only as an identifier. e.g. O que é isto (what is this?)
Este / esse / esta / essa – are always used with the noun e.g.
Este carro aqui (this car here)
Esta mesa aqui (this table here)
Esse casaco (that coat – near to the person you speak to)
Essa toalha (that towel – near to the person you speak to)
This is why gender is so important. It is explained in more detail in the Speak like a Native Speaker course.
I hope that helps a little
Still struggling with this. If I hold up a carton of milk to find the price, but don’t mention the noun, do I use isso? If I say how much is this milk? Do I use este?
Yes. You can say ‘isto’. (this) “Quanto é isto, se faz favor”
If you use the word milk then you would say. “Quanto é este leite?” . How much is this milk?
You have basically got it!
So is isto masculine and isso feminine?
No. they are both neutral if you like:
“Isto” means “this” – but it is not identifying the object concerned. We are not mentioning the objects name if you like. We often use if for identification purposes:
“O que é isto?” – what is this?
“Isso” means “that” – when referring to something near to the person you are speaking to. Imagine you have something in your hand and I am unsure what it is. I would say to you:
“O que é isso?” – what is that? (the thing you have in your hand)
Because I am not mentioning the name of the object, I don’t need to think about the gender.
If I mention the name and identify the object, then I will use the gender:
“Esta mesa está vaga?” (Fem) – “Is this table available?” (The table near me)
“Essa chávena é preta” (fem)- “That cup is black” (the cup near you)
“Este livro é bom” (masc) – “This book is good” (The one in my hand)
“Esse telemóvel é meu” (masc) – “That mobile phone is mine” (The one near you)
Does that make it clearer?
It does, thank you.
Glad it helped! Anymore questions,just let me know.