Q&ANeuter Relative Pronouns? How Do I Use That?

Neuter Relative Pronouns? How Do I Use That?

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¡Hola! I said before in my previous questions, I'm moving to Ecuador! 13 more days! Now, I'm searching throughout the Spanish Grammar articles, and I come across the lesson Neuter Relative Pronouns. Below are the Neuter Relative Pronouns:

Lo cual (which, what)
Lo que (which, what)

Now that we know what they are, how do I use them? They are used when the gender of the antecedent is unclear and refers to an idea or abstract concept, however in the examples given to me in the lesson, there is a gender for the antecedent! Look below:

Él siempre se jacta, lo cual me molesta mucho. (He always brags, which really annoys me.)
Hay un libro nuevo por Isabel Allende, lo cual me encanta. (There is a new book by Isabel Allende, which I like.)

You can clearly see the gender in the first example and the antecedent, however I'm a bit confused where the antecedent is in the second example. Can someone please clearly explain to me how/when to use Neuter Relative pronouns and where the antecedent would be located in a sentence? Examples please.

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updated Jul 2, 2013

posted by Curly_Puffington

1 Answer

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Hi there-

Example 1: lo cual refers to the fact of him (Él) bragging a lot. It is not a tangible object, but a trait of his personality and thus can't be completely "captured" without using the neutral. Example 2: I do understand it, but I don't like the structure. Lo cual here is referring to the fact that there is a new book by XX author, the speaker loves that fact, not the book. You're right, to refer to the book, it'd be: .....por Autor XX, que me encanta.

"Lo" is actually quite useful once you get the hang of it. Here's some examples used with adjectives.

Me gusta todo lo bonito. I like everything that is pretty. (As you can see, we have to add additional words here in English, because "I like the pretty" sounds incorrect.

Another one, which is an expression: