Pointing and "over there"

Buenos días Ricky,

Let's imagine first we are talking about physical objects that you can see at the moment of talking. Choosing "ese" or "aquel" will depend on the position of the object. If the object is positioned near the listener you would generally use "ese" because it is near/next to the listener. If the object is positioned far away from both, the speaker and the listener, then we generally use "aquel". 

Having said that, there is also a very general rule that doesn't consider the position of the object in reference to the listener. We will use "ese" to point at something that is positioned at a middle distance (this middle distance is very subjective to the speaker) from the speaker and listener, and we will use "aquel" to refer to something positioned at a far away distance from both the speaker and the listener. Again a far away distance is subjective to the speaker. This last rule is a very "open" rule as you can see. 

Let's imagine now we are talking about abstract ideas, e.g a trip, a summer... Here, using "ese" or "aquel" will entirely depend on how far away or near the speaker sees in his/her mind that idea. You could say "Ese verano del 2008 fue maravilloso" or "Aquel verano del 2008 fue maravilloso". If you say the second sentence, that summer appears in your mind as a "far away" idea. 

I hope this clarifies it a bit more.

Un saludo

Inma

Hola Ricky,

1. The demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (este, ese, aquel, etc) are not always exclusively used when you are pointing at something. Sometimes we use them to refer to ideas or time (you cannot point at ideas or time), for example: "Recuerdo aquel verano tan caluroso de 1998...". 

2. You can indeed use aquel to refer to another country. You may be pointing at it on a map with your finger, or just refer to the country as an idea in your mind ( a far away idea/country).

Here is a more advance lesson on demonstratives referring to time.

I hope this helps.

Thank you for your query,

un saludo

Inma