# Neuter pronouns: esto, eso, aquello, ello, lo

> id: grammar.pronouns.neuter · category: grammar · depth: standard · levels: B1 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Esto, eso, aquello refer to ideas, situations, or unnamed things — never to a specific noun, which would have gender.

Spanish nouns all have gender, so when you point at something with no noun yet — an idea, a situation, a whole statement — you use the neuter forms esto, eso, aquello: ¿qué es esto?, eso no me gusta ('I don't like that [situation]'), todo aquello quedó atrás. They never replace a specific gendered noun (for that you'd use este/esta, etc.).

The neuter article lo turns adjectives and clauses into abstract nouns: lo importante ('the important thing'), lo bueno y lo malo, lo de ayer ('that business from yesterday'), lo que dijiste ('what you said'). This lo is one of the most useful little words in Spanish.

Ello is a formal, mostly written neuter pronoun meaning 'it / that matter': por ello ('for that reason'), todo ello. In everyday speech eso covers its ground. Rule of thumb: if there's a concrete noun with gender, don't use the neuter; if you're pointing at an idea, do.

## Examples
- Eso es exactamente lo que pienso. — That's exactly what I think.
- Lo difícil es empezar. — The hard part is starting.
- Eso que dijiste me hizo pensar; lo difícil es cambiar. — What you said made me think; the hard part is changing.

Related: grammar.pronouns.demonstrative

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