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cette voiture-là / celle-là that car / that one |
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Le suffixe -là
Unlike other French suffixes, -là does not create new words, but rather adds additional meaning to the nouns and pronouns it’s added to.
1) Demonstrative adjective + noun + –là
French demonstrative adjectives on their own don’t distinguish between "this/these" and "that/those," so you can add –là to a noun in order to specify "that" noun / "those" nouns as opposed to "this" noun / "these" nouns.
Par exemple…
Ce restaurant-là est trop cher. | That restaurant is too expensive. | |
Nous aimons bien cette voiture-là. | We really like that car. | |
Ces femmes-là sont fascinantes. | Those women are fascinating. |
In addition to specifying location/nearness of a noun, –là can emphasize "that" in reference to time.
Il ne sortirait jamais à cette heure-là. | He would never go out at that hour. | |
Je l’ai vu ce dimanche-là. | I saw him that Sunday. | |
À ce moment-là, je n’en savais rien. | At that time, I didn’t know anything about it. |
2) Demonstrative pronoun + –là
Similarly, French demonstrative pronouns on their own don’t distinguish between "that/those" and "this/these," so –là can be added to them as well.
Celui-là est trop cher. | That one is too expensive. | |
Nous aimons bien celle-là. | We really like that one. | |
Celles-là sont fascinantes. | Those (ones) are fascinating. |
When talking about two or more things, the addition of –là indicates that you’re referring to "the former" rather than "the latter":
J’étudie le français et l’espagnol, et je parle celui-là tous les jours. | I’m studying French and Spanish, and I speak the former every day. | |
Les pommes et les bananes sont délicieuses, mais je préfère celles-là. | Apples and bananas are delicious, but I prefer the former. |

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