'Celui'

Test yourself on 'Celui'

After reading these notes, test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Celui - This One, That One

'Celui' is used for replacing masculine demonstrative adjectives and the nouns that follow them. 'Celui' cannot be used by itself. The three situations where 'celui' can be used are:

With '-ci-' or '-là' attached to it

With '-ci' added to it, it means 'this one'. With '-là' added to it, it means 'that one'.
- Quel garçon l'a fait, celui-ci ou celui-là?
  - Which boy did it, this one or that one?
- Je ne sais pas si je veux celui-ci ou celui-là.
  - I don't know if I want this one or that one.

Followed by a prepositional phrase

Usually, these begin with 'de'.
- Quel film voulez-vous voir? Celui d'Espagne ou celui du Brésil?
  - Which film do you want to watch? The one from Spain or the one from Brazil?
- Le seul vélo du village, c'était celui de mon frère.
  - The only bike in the village was the one belonging to my brother.
- Lequel préférez-vous? Celui de droite ou celui de gauche?
  - Which do you prefer? The one on the right or the one on the left?

Followed by a relative pronoun

They are used before 'dont', 'qui' and 'que'.
- Celui dont c'est l'anniversaire.
  - The one whose birthday it is.
- Il n'y a de pire sourd que celui qui ne veut entendre.
  - There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.
- Celui que vous voulez.
  - The one which you want.

Cela, Ça, Celui

Ça and cela are indefinite demonstrative pronouns. They are used to replace a noun in a sentence, it doesn't matter if the verb is masculine or feminine.

Cela

'Cela' is used with every verb apart from 'être'.
It can be used with 'pouvoir' or 'devoir' when they are NOT followed by 'être'.
- Cela me fera plaisir de répondre à vos questions.
  - I would be happy to take your questions. (Literally: This will make me happy to answer your questions.)
- Cela doit rester un secret.
  - This has to remain a secret.

Cela continued

Cela is also used as the thing having the action done to it.
- Qui a fait cela?
  - Who did this?

Ça

'Ça' is the more informal version of 'cela', it is used in the same way.
- Ça me fera plaisir.
  - I would be happy to.
- Ça devrait aller mieux demain.
  - That will be better tomorrow.
- Qui a fait ça?
  - Who did that.

Celui

'Celui' is used for replacing masculine demonstrative adjectives and the noun that follows them.
It cannot be used by itself, it can be used on three occasions.

With '-ci-' or '-là' attached to it

With '-ci' added to it, it means 'this one'. With '-là' added to it, it means 'that one'.
- Quel garçon l'a fait, celui-ci ou celui-là?
  - Which boy did it, this one or that one?
- Je ne sais pas si je veux celui-ci ou celui-là.
  - I don't know if I want this one or that one.
Note that if the noun being described is feminine, this becomes celle-ci and celle-là.

Followed by a prepositional phrase

Usually, these begin with 'de'.
- Quel film voulez-vous voir? Celui d'Espagne ou celui du Brésil?
  - Which film do you want to watch? The one from Spain or the one from Brazil?
- Le seul vélo du village, c'était celui de mon frère.
  - The only bike in the village was the one belonging to my brother.
- Lequel préférez-vous? Celui de droite ou celui de gauche?
  - Which do you prefer? The one on the right or the one on the left?

Followed by a relative pronoun

They are used before 'dont', 'qui' and 'que'.
- Celui dont c'est l'anniversaire.
  - The one whose birthday it is.
- Celui que vous voulez.
  - The one which you want.