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Let's take the demonstrative pronoun "eso". Use it as a direct object (i.e., put it in the accusative / after a transitive verb), and it stays the same, right?

No creo eso.

Now, take the demonstrative pronoun "ellos". Turns out, we have to change it to 'los' like so:

¿dónde los viste?

So, both "eso" and "ellos" are demonstrative pronouns, but the latter does inflect and the former does not. Is this directly comparable to how the English demonstrative pronoun "it" doesn't change in the accusative, but "they" does? Or is there something else at play?

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  • No, forget English, it will not help you. The Spanish can be: ellos, ellas, el, ella etc.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 1 at 21:16

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As far as I know, "ellos" is not considered a demonstrative pronoun. You can see a list of demonstratives in Wikipedia. For the third person plural we have: estos, esos, and aquellos.

You can use any of them for your second sentence depending on the spatial or temporal location.

¿Donde viste a esos?

Also you can use "los" as well in that sentence

¿Donde los viste?

We make the distinction between they and them using "a" before "ellos" (like in my example). So there is a distinction that does not imply changing the word but using additional ones. More info (in Spanish) about the use of that "a" (a preposition) in direct objects here

On the other hand, demonstrative pronouns are not used mandatorily as direct objects, you can use "regular" pronouns.

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  • Crazy. What a mistake on my part! Let me do some more research along those lines before I accept your answer. Thanks.
    – vanhemt
    Commented Aug 7 at 11:01
  • @vanhemt Sure. Glad to help. The main point is that you can't establish that they/them parallelism between English and Spanish.
    – RubioRic
    Commented Aug 7 at 12:34
  • But I can establish the it/eso parallelism? No inflection in the accusative in either English or Spanish.....right?
    – vanhemt
    Commented Aug 7 at 14:06
  • @vanhemt Eh, I think that the subject is pretty complicated. You shouldn't establish parallelism regarding direct objects. For example, take a look at this link (in Spanish, sorry) We make the distinction between they and them using "a" before "ellos" (like in my example). So there is a distinction that is not changing the word but using additional ones. :S Demonstrative pronouns are not used mandatorily as direct objects, you can use "regular" pronouns.
    – RubioRic
    Commented Aug 7 at 15:24
  • I've edited to remove these sentence from my answer: "So in Spanish that inflection that you mentioned stands for the third person both in singular and in plural." I think that my previous comment is clearer
    – RubioRic
    Commented Aug 7 at 15:27

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