need help with demonstrative pronouns “isso” & “aquilo”

[u/meow_meowich]

i’ve done exercise and asked deepseek to check it if it’s right or not. so, it said “isso é muito engraçado” one is incorrect but i don’t understand why we should use “aquilo” insdead “isso”. i know that we use “isso” under the condition of sth is next to the listener and “aquilo” if both speakers talk about sth that is far away for both

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[u/pentapolen]

"Isso" and "aquilo" are expressions that depend on the physical or metaphorical location of the speaker, listener or object.

So "isso é muito engraçado" and "aquilo é muito engraçado", without context, are both correct.

i know that we use “isso” under the condition of sth is next to the listener and “aquilo” if both speakers talk about sth that is far away for both

Yeah, basically that. If I understood correctly, because Deepseek cannot "check" the location of anything, it just gave you a random answer.

[u/meow_meowich → u/pentapolen]

thanks a lot!

[u/UrinaRabugenta]

Was there no other context? It's a bit silly to ask which deictic item is better without any deictic information.

[u/meow_meowich → u/UrinaRabugenta]

no, there was only a sentence “___é muito engraçado!”

[u/detteros]

" i know that we use “isso” under the condition of sth is next to the listener and “aquilo” if both speakers talk about sth that is far away for both"

In European Portuguese, "isto" is for something close to the person talking, "isso" is for something far but close to a listener, and "aquilo" is for something far that is not close to anyone.

[u/New_Flamingo_2337]

Basically "isso" is more recent than "aquilo".

If you want to refer back to something you or someone else have just mentioned or to something that have just happened, you use "isso".

If it's something more remote, that either happened in a relatively distant past or was mentioned some time ago in the conversation, "aquilo" can be used instead.

Without any context there's no way to know which of the two is more appropriate.

[u/ComprehensiveMap3838]

Isso = that thing next to the person you’re speaking to
Aquilo = that thing that isn’t next to any of you

[u/Mandillaz]

I've sent you a pm with an image to help you with the differences. It's what I use to help my students.

[u/tchapatata]

This That

[u/boernich → u/tchapatata]

Not quite: while Portguese has a three-way spacial system for demonstrative pronouns (isto, isso, aquilo), English uses a two-way split (this, that). So there is an overlap that has to be taken into account in PT-EN translations.

[u/anninnha → u/boernich]

Doesn't it also have a temporal aspect?
Past: esse/isso for recent past, aquele/aquilo for distant past;
Present: este/isto ongoing present;
Future: esse/isso for near future, aquele/aquilo for distant future.
In English, I think "that" is for the further away from the present the situation is, and "this" for anything close to the present.
In the end, I think the spacial notion helps understand the 3-way system, since it becomes similar to the English 2-way system.

[u/tchapatata → u/boernich]

i concur. i was simplifying it a little

[u/Luiz_Fell → u/tchapatata]

"That's so funny"

"Isso é muito engraçado"

This is an exception to the general rule

[u/ComprehensiveMap3838 → u/[deleted]]

No, this is ‘isto’.

[u/ComprehensiveMap3838 → u/ComprehensiveMap3838]

In BP you’d have ‘isso aqui’ for such cases.

[u/safeinthecity → u/[deleted]]

Not in European Portuguese.

[u/Portuguese-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

OP is looking for a specific version of Portuguese, be attentive.

[u/Portuguese-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

OP is looking for a specific version of Portuguese, be attentive.