My co-workers use "Qué es eso?" is this right?

Question

My co-workers use "Qué es eso?" when addressing a poorly made burger, but if they did want to say "what is that?" wouldn't they use ése or ésa because the food is not neuter?

Answer 1

As far as I know, you would use "eso" or "éso" (accent varies from country to country, or person to person) when referring to a noun that is not mentioned in the sentence or question.

Ex:

Qué es eso? What is that?

vs.

Quién es ese hombre? Who is that man?

I hope this helps. By the way, I'm not a native Spanish speaker, so I might not be 100% right.

Answer 2

Even when we know the gender in the conversation, I think eso can still be used.

El coche es viejo, eso sí - The car is certainly old.

Answer 3

I think the reason there's a difference is in the usage:

What is this?

What is this hamburger?

The first case uses "this" as a pronoun.

The second case uses "this" as an adjective, thus gender matching rules apply.

Answer 4

I agree with Goldie. I would say "¿Qué es eso?" when referring to something that is not definite. Although, yes, it was obviously a burger (esa), I think you'd use "eso" as in asking for a definition of "what the heck is that?"