What these pronouns do
A demonstrative pronoun stands in for a noun you have already mentioned and points at it: Quel sac ? Celui de Marie. (Which bag? Marie's.)
English says the one, the ones, this one, that one, or just adds an apostrophe: Marie's. French covers all of that with one family of words: celui, celle, ceux, celles.
The determiner ce / cet / cette / ces comes before a noun (ce livre), the pronoun comes instead of the noun (celui-ci). If a noun follows, you need the determiner. English uses this for both: "this book", "this one".
The forms
There are four forms. They agree with the gender and number of the noun they replace. English the one never changes, so this is the extra step.
celui, celle, ceux, celles
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | celui | ceux |
| feminine | celle | celles |
Forms by gender and number
celui de: the English 's
With de you say who something belongs to or where it comes from: le vélo de Paul becomes celui de Paul. This is the commonest use. English hides it in an apostrophe: Paul's is literally the one of Paul, and French spells that out.
Notre appartement est plus petit que celui des voisins.
Our flat is smaller than the neighbours'.
Je prends le train de 8 h, pas celui de 9 h.
I'm taking the 8 o'clock train, not the 9 o'clock one.
Ton idée est bonne, mais celle de Léa est meilleure.
Your idea is good, but Léa's is better.
Quelle robe ? Celle du fond.
Which dress? The one at the back.
celui qui, celui que, celui dont, celui où
celui is very often followed by a relative clause. The relative pronoun depends, as always, on its role in the clause.
Ceux qui veulent participer doivent s'inscrire avant vendredi.
Those who want to take part must sign up by Friday.
Parmi tous ces films, celui que tu m'as conseillé était le meilleur.
Of all these films, the one you recommended was the best.
C'est exactement celui dont j'avais besoin.
That's exactly the one I needed.
Mon café préféré, c'est celui où on s'est rencontrés.
My favourite café is the one where we met.
English can drop the relative pronoun (the one you recommended). French never can: celui que tu m'as conseillé, not celui tu m'as conseillé.
celui-ci and celui-là
With no preposition and no relative clause, add -ci (the nearer one, this one) or -là (the further one, that one). In spoken French people mostly say -là, even for things close by.
Prends celui-ci, il est plus léger.
Take this one, it's lighter.
Celles-ci sont en solde.
These ones are on sale.
Non, pas ce modèle, celui-là, au fond.
No, not this model, that one at the back.
Ceux-là coûtent trop cher.
Those are too expensive.
ça and cela: when no noun is meant
When you mean no particular noun but an idea or a situation (English that, it), use ça or cela. Neither has gender or a plural, and they mean the same: you say ça, you write cela.
Tu viens demain ? Ça dépend.
Are you coming tomorrow? It depends.
Cela demande beaucoup de temps.
That takes a lot of time.
