Demonstratives pronouns are words that indicate a subject already understood by the speaker and listener. In English, these are words like “this” and “that”.

Spanish demonstratives are used similarly to those of English, but like most other pronoun must agree with the gender and plurality of the original subject:

   este gato
   this cat

   esas vacas
   those cows

Another major difference is that Spanish has a second set of words for “that/those” but used exclusively for distant objects, far away from both the speaker and listener:

   En aquellos tiempos las cosas eran más sencillas.
   In those times things were more simple.

There is also a set of gender neutral demonstrative pronouns, esto, eso and aquello that are used for abstract concepts. In conversation when there is no specific object being referred to but a generally understood experience or idea, you can use these pronouns:

   Eso fue bueno.
   That was good.