Which gender?

Question

I wonder how to use Demonstrative Adjective when asking question. for example: If I want to know what something is, I will say 'What's this?' but when i translate it into Spanish i'll get problem because 'this' in Spanish is este/esta and this problem stops me because i don't know if it feminine or masculine. if i didn't know 'table' i would ask 'question what is that?' and if someone knew they'd answer me 'that's a table' but in Spanish i don't know the word 'table' in Spanish surely i don't know if it fem. or masc. too how would i question? ¿que es este? or ¿que es esta? i know this question is so confusing and seems no clear. i can feel it (haha) but i hope you guys understand what i'm trying to say.

Answer 1

If you don´t know what something is you obviously don´t know its gender, so in these situations we defer to the masculine, ie: ¿Qué es esto / eso?

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Bosquederoble is right. I should have said "masculine conjugation", which becomes neuter gender for use as an abstract thing. You could however say "this thing" (esta cosa) in feminine gender, but this is not very common.

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Answer 2

From this site:

http://spanish.about.com/cs/grammar/a/neuter.htm

Él and ella. Nosotros and nosotras. El and la. Un and una. El profesor and la profesora. In Spanish, everything is either masculine or feminine, right? Not quite. True, Spanish isn't like German, where in terms of gender nouns fall into three classifications (masculine, feminine and neuter). Indeed, in Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine. But Spanish does have use for the neuter form, which can come in quite handy when referring to concepts or ideas.

and

The neuter demonstrative pronouns: Usually, demonstrative pronouns are used to point at an object: éste, "this one"; ése, "that one,"; and aquél, "that one over there." The neuter equivalents (esto, eso and aquello) are all unaccented, end in -o and have roughly the same meanings, but as is the case with the direct object lo, they usually refer to an idea or concept rather than an object or person. They can also refer to an unknown object. Here are some examples of its use:

• No olvides esto. "Don't forget this."

• No creo eso. "I don't believe that."

• ¿Qué es aquello? "What is that over there?"

• ¿Te gustó eso? "Did you like that?"

• No me gusta esto. "I don't like this."

Note that the final two sentences must refer to an event, situation or process rather than an object with a name. For example, if you're walking in a dark jungle and get a creepy feeling about something that might happen, no me gusta esto would be appropriate. But if you're sampling a hamburger and don't care for it, no me gusta ésta would be appropriate (ésta is used because the word for hamburger, hamburguesa, is feminine).

Correct. masc este/esta ese/esa neuter esto/eso - chileno, Apr 7, 2014