In the example:
Nuestra ayuda está dirigida a jóvenes sin empleo. Estas son personas que han acabado sus estudios y no han encontrado trabajo.
why is it "Estas" and not "Estos"? Doesn't this pronoun need to agree with "jóvenes" rather than "personas"?
Hola Paolo
In this case the demonstrative is agreeing with the gender of "personas": estas
As you have the noun jóvenes before and it is actually referring to them you would think that you need the masculine: estos (estos [jóvenes] son personas que...) and that would also be correct.
It is something to do with the word "personas" and because we are considering these "young people" as "persons" we used straight away the gender attributed to "personas" instead of "jóvenes". Its as if we are saying "Estas [personas jóvenes] son personas que..."
It's a bit difficult to explain. I hope you got the idea...
Saludos
Hmm. Strange. I wonder if what is happening grammatically is actually that you can either use the demonstrative pronoun: Estos [jóvenes] son personas que...
Or else a demonstrative adjective: Estas personas (son los) que... but allowing the verb to go in-between the adjective and the noun.
In any case, an interesting construction. Thanks!
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard
Find your Spanish level