the neutral esto, eso, and aquello
Like ian-hill, I still am not too sure when to use these demonstrative pronouns. If the question is plainly "What is this/that?" because the person asking does not really know what it is, does that make it "¿Qué es esto/eso/aquello?" only? Does it also mean that it will never be logically correct to ask the question "¿Qué es éste/ése/aquél?" because if you know the gender of the object (el or la to be able to decide to use éste or ésta), then you must already know what it is? Am I making sense or am I just too confused now?
2 Answers
Yes, you can ask "What is this [one]?" knowing the gender of the object (noun)?
I have three wrapped boxes (cajas) ready to be labeled for shipment. Someone picks one of them up and says "what is this one?" Since we know that this one (ésta) refers to caja it is feminine. Pronouns substitute for nouns. If we know the specific noun that the pronoun is substituting for, then it agrees in number and gender with that noun. If we don't know the specific noun that the pronoun refers to, then you use the neuter pronoun.
Imagine having to guess a number between 1 and 10. You have no idea which is the correct number. If you know that the éste refers to the noun (number), then the pronoun must match that noun even though we don't know exactly what the noun is (the correct number.)
¿Es éste el número correcto?
The noun itself can be ambiguous. We just have to know what the noun is.
¿Cuál marca de coche es ésta? Whether the brand is a Chevorlet, a Ford, a Toyota, etc. doesn't matter. The noun is marca and the pronoun must match the noun; not what the noun represents. The trick is to figure out which noun the pronoun is replacing. Is ésta a brand or car? Since the answer to the question is a specific brand, then then pronoun is ésta (marca); not éste (coche)
So when we say ¿Qué is esto? esto is used because we don't have a known noun to refer to, not that we have a ambiguous noun that we don't know exactly what it is.
I have three circles, one painted blue, one red, one green? I point to the green one? ¿Qué es esto? Why is the neuter used when you know exactly what it refers to. Because there is no known noun (círculo, objeto, figura, color, etc.) Since you don't know the noun that the pronoun (esto) refers to you must use the neuter pronoun.
In Toni's example if we had previous context where comidas are being discussed then it would be possible to use ¿Y ésta qué [comida] es? having the pronoun to obviously refer to comida from context. To use anything other than the neuter pronoun, the specific noun that it refers to must be known or implied.
If you're in a restaurant choosing the buffet and you don't know what kind of food you're looking at, you can ask ¿Y esto qué es? / ¿Y eso de allá?
