French Demonstrative Adjectives: ce, cet, cette, ces

French has four demonstrative adjectives - ce, cet, cette, ces - and each one covers both "this" and "that". Pick the form by the noun's gender and number, use cet before a masculine noun starting with a vowel or silent h, and add -ci or -là only when you need to contrast near and far.

The four forms

The plural ces is the same for both genders, the same way les and des are. Because the form depends on the noun's gender, the demonstrative is only as reliable as your French noun genders: learn every noun with its article and this page costs nothing.

ce vs cet

Both are masculine singular. The choice is purely phonetic.

• ce before a consonant: ce livre, ce chien, ce film, ce garçon
• cet before a vowel or silent h: cet homme, cet arbre, cet ami, cet hôtel, cet enfant

Cet and cette are pronounced identically. Only the spelling differs. If you mishear them in speech you can't tell them apart - you have to know the noun's gender.

Feminine and plural

Feminine singular always cette, regardless of the next sound:

• cette femme, cette maison, cette idée, cette école

Plural always ces:

• ces livres, ces femmes, ces enfants, ces idées

The -ci / -là near / far distinction

French doesn't bake the near / far split into the determiner. Ce livre can mean "this book" or "that book"; context decides. When you genuinely need to mark the distinction, append the suffixes -ci (here, near speaker) and -là (there, away) to the noun, with a hyphen.

• ce livre-ci (this book here)
• ce livre-là (that book there)
• cette maison-ci (this house)
• cette maison-là (that house)
• ces enfants-ci ... ces enfants-là (these children ... those children)

The suffixes are at their clearest in contrasts ("this one or that one"). -là also turns up all the time in speech with no contrast at all, especially with time words: ce jour-là (that day), à ce moment-là (at that moment), cette fois-ci (this time). If you only need a vague gesture, plain ce / cet / cette / ces is fine.

ce the adjective, ce the pronoun

One trap is purely visual. The ce of c'est and ce que is a different word: a pronoun meaning "it" or "that", which never sits in front of a noun.

The test is the same as for celui: if a noun follows straight after, it is the adjective and it must agree (ce, cet, cette or ces). If not, it is the pronoun, and it never changes for gender or number.

Worked examples

• Ce film est excellent. (This film / that film is excellent.)
• Cet homme parle français. (This man speaks French.)
• Cette voiture est rouge. (This car is red.)
• Ces enfants sont fatigués. (These children are tired.)
• Je préfère ce livre-ci à celui-là. (I prefer this book to that one.)
• À cette époque, j'habitais à Paris. (At that time, I was living in Paris.)

Common mistakes English speakers make

The big one is using ce before a vowel and writing ce homme. It has to be cet homme - the rule is mandatory, not stylistic. The second is over-using -ci and -là because the English brain wants to translate "this" and "that" word for word. Don't. Plain ce / cette / ces already covers both, and -ci in particular is kept for when the contrast is doing real work in the sentence. The third is forgetting that demonstratives don't replace the noun - "this one" is celui-ci / celle-ci, a separate set covered on the French demonstrative pronouns page.

Practice

The exercises below mix all four forms with the -ci / -là suffixes. For pure repetition of the gender, number and vowel check on the commonest nouns, the ce, cet, cette, ces practice drill runs 23 more items.

See also

• The French grammar cheatsheet covers the full A1-B1 foundation.
• The French articles page covers le / la / les and the gender rules demonstratives also follow.