Esto, este, esta

[Zach]

Hola,

Me gustaría saber cuando usar esto, este, o esta, por favor.

Gracias.

I hope I got that sentence right...

[pogo]

from what i know este is the masculine form of this and esta is the feminine, you then choose the one that matches the gender of the noun you're referring to so you could have este sombrillo or esta mesa.

esto is the neutral version and is used for more abstract things, so you could use it for things like esto es un grande oportunidad.

I hope that's right.

[Chorbdaddy]

Pogo es corecto. I have trouble with those also because I want to use esto as the masculine form. That's a wierd one.

[pogo]

oh and also Zach, you can have eso, ese and esa. They work exactly the same as esto, este and esta but it means 'that'

[Zach]

Thanks for the input. However, in several movies I rarely hear "esto" and people often use "este" to refer to many objects..

[sosia]

Perhaps it's because "esto" goes always alone, refering to something near. With a noun, goes to masculine/feminine. We only have masculine and feminine, so for a car is "este coche" (or "este carro") but when it's breakdown whe say "esto no funciona" or "este coche no funciona". feminine "esta televisión está averiada" or "esto está averiado"
If not's the case give examples.