I have a master's degree in the language, and I taught it at a university for 2 years. If you have (serious) questions about it, I will answer them in this thread.
Thank you very much. I have a question about the usage of the neuter pronouns. I really don't have a great concept of when to use them. I know to use it in a sentence like "ella es lo mejor", because mejor kinda has no gender and is thus neuter. But I'm still fucking confused.
In that case you'd say Ella es la mejor. La in this case refers to ella.
As far as neuter pronouns go, we have lo and ello. Don't confuse lo (neuter) with lo (masc.).
El libro está en la mesa. No lo tengo.
Lo here refers to el libro, so it's masculine.
Lo sé.
Lo here is referring to a concept, an abstraction basically, so it's neuter. Compare this to:
Los conozco.
I know them (los here is a direct object pronoun meaning them.)
Todo lo que tengo, te doy a ti.
Everything I have, I give to you. Lo in this case is neuter because it's not referring to a specific object. It's an abstraction. Compare it with this:
Todo el dinero que tengo, te lo doy.
All the money I have, I give it to you. In this sentence the lo is referring to the money that you give to the other person. The lo here is a masc. direct object pronoun because its antecedent (the thing it is referring to) is el dinero, a singular, masculine noun.
As for your original example, we can say this:
Mi carro es el mejor (de todos los carros).
Mi casa es la mejor (de todas las casas).
If you want it to be neuter, it must not refer to anything concrete:
Lo mejor de todo es que me dio 10 dólares.
The best thing of all is that he gave me 10 dollars. Lo here is neuter because you're alluding to some best thing. You aren't saying that your car is the best or your house is the best. Lo is neuter because it does not directly relate to anything. You cannot take lo out of the sentence and put in "el carro" or something else. Since you cannot substitute it, it means it does not have an antecedent (it's not referring to anything) and thus you know it's neuter.
In much the same way we have ello.
Todo ello me da pena. Ello isn't really referring to any particular thing. If you said:
Todo eso me da pena. You're referring to some specific thing with eso. Maybe it's a car wreck. Whatever it is, it has a specific referent. Todo ello me da pena is basically referring to some totality. All of it makes me sad. The it here isn't referring to anything in particular. It's nebulous.
Ello is the Spanish neuter subject pronoun, used to mean "it" when referring to something non-specific. When referring to someone specific, use "él" or "ella," depending on the gender of the noun.
Compare:
¿Qué pasa? Ello no me gusta. What's happening? I don't like it.
vs
¿Quién es esta cantante? Ella no me gusta. Who is this singer? I don't like it.
Todo ello está terminando. Everything is ending.
vs
Mario habla desde hace 20 minutos - ya (él) está terminando. Mario has been talking for 20 minutes - he's finishing now.
Ello can also be the neuter object of a preposition:
Todo fue difícil - no quiero hablar de ello. Everything was difficult - I don't want to talk about it.
vs
¿Qué tal fue la escuela?
No quiero hablar de ella. How was school?
I don't want to talk about it.
Pido modestamente por adelantado para absolucion por mi Espanol terrible pero tengo un par de preguntas. ¿Primero tienes alguna surgencia de sintaxis? ¿Segundo en que contextos sois "acerca de" y "sobre" usaron?
Ello is the Spanish neuter subject pronoun, used to mean "it" when referring to something non-specific. When referring to someone specific, use "él" or "ella," depending on the gender of the noun.
Compare:
¿Qué pasa? Ello no me gusta. What's happening? I don't like it.
vs
¿Quién es esta cantante? Ella no me gusta. Who is this singer? I don't like it.
Todo ello está terminando. Everything is ending.
vs
Mario habla desde hace 20 minutos - ya (él) está terminando. Mario has been talking for 20 minutes - he's finishing now.
Ello can also be the neuter object of a preposition:
Todo fue difícil - no quiero hablar de ello. Everything was difficult - I don't want to talk about it.
vs
¿Qué tal fue la escuela?
No quiero hablar de ella. How was school?
I don't want to talk about it.
These are some more examples of ello. If you need more explanation, please let me know.
+1 Wow, I finally am starting to fucking get it. Thank you. My high school teacher was off on a couple things, then. Looking at these examples, man I have SUCH a long ways to go.
Comments
As far as neuter pronouns go, we have lo and ello. Don't confuse lo (neuter) with lo (masc.).
El libro está en la mesa. No lo tengo.
Lo here refers to el libro, so it's masculine.
Lo sé.
Lo here is referring to a concept, an abstraction basically, so it's neuter. Compare this to:
Los conozco.
I know them (los here is a direct object pronoun meaning them.)
Todo lo que tengo, te doy a ti.
Everything I have, I give to you. Lo in this case is neuter because it's not referring to a specific object. It's an abstraction. Compare it with this:
Todo el dinero que tengo, te lo doy.
All the money I have, I give it to you. In this sentence the lo is referring to the money that you give to the other person. The lo here is a masc. direct object pronoun because its antecedent (the thing it is referring to) is el dinero, a singular, masculine noun.
As for your original example, we can say this:
Mi carro es el mejor (de todos los carros).
Mi casa es la mejor (de todas las casas).
If you want it to be neuter, it must not refer to anything concrete:
Lo mejor de todo es que me dio 10 dólares.
The best thing of all is that he gave me 10 dollars. Lo here is neuter because you're alluding to some best thing. You aren't saying that your car is the best or your house is the best. Lo is neuter because it does not directly relate to anything. You cannot take lo out of the sentence and put in "el carro" or something else. Since you cannot substitute it, it means it does not have an antecedent (it's not referring to anything) and thus you know it's neuter.
In much the same way we have ello.
Todo ello me da pena. Ello isn't really referring to any particular thing. If you said:
Todo eso me da pena. You're referring to some specific thing with eso. Maybe it's a car wreck. Whatever it is, it has a specific referent. Todo ello me da pena is basically referring to some totality. All of it makes me sad. The it here isn't referring to anything in particular. It's nebulous.
Compare:
¿Qué pasa? Ello no me gusta. What's happening? I don't like it.
vs
¿Quién es esta cantante? Ella no me gusta. Who is this singer? I don't like it.
Todo ello está terminando. Everything is ending.
vs
Mario habla desde hace 20 minutos - ya (él) está terminando. Mario has been talking for 20 minutes - he's finishing now.
Ello can also be the neuter object of a preposition:
Todo fue difícil - no quiero hablar de ello. Everything was difficult - I don't want to talk about it.
vs
¿Qué tal fue la escuela?
No quiero hablar de ella. How was school?
I don't want to talk about it.
http://www.elearnspanishlanguage.com/grammar/pronouns/ello.html
These are some more examples of ello. If you need more explanation, please let me know.
Acerca de y sobre
Mi libro está sobre la mesa. (on top of)
Mi libro está cerca de la mesa. (close to)
Normalmente yo no digo "acerca de" porque significa lo mismo que "cerca de."
¿Dónde queda la tienda?
Se queda cerca de aquí.
+1 Wow, I finally am starting to fucking get it. Thank you. My high school teacher was off on a couple things, then. Looking at these examples, man I have SUCH a long ways to go.