Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio porque no explica claramente quién lo escribe. - My sister doesn’t trust that site because it doesn’t clearly explain who writes it.

confiar en alguien / algo = to trust someone / something
- No confío en él. – I don’t trust him.
- Confío en mis amigos. – I trust my friends.

Using confiar without a preposition is generally incorrect when it means "to trust."

You will sometimes see confiar algo a alguien (to entrust something to someone):

Le confié un secreto. – I entrusted him with a secret.

But for "to trust (a person / a source / a website)," the correct structure is confiar en.
Confiar de is not used with this meaning in standard Spanish.

Why is ese sitio used? What’s the difference between ese, este, and aquel?

Ese, este, and aquel show different degrees of distance (physical, mental, or emotional):

este sitio – this site (close to the speaker, or “this one we’re talking about right now,” often more neutral or “near”)
ese sitio – that site (a bit more distant: maybe the other person’s site, or something “not mine / not ours”)
aquel sitio – that site over there, far away (often more distant in space or time, or something more removed from the current context)

In the sentence:

Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio…

ese suggests a kind of distance or slight detachment from the speaker. It can also sound a bit dismissive or suspicious, like “that site (over there / that one)” rather than something close or familiar.

Does sitio here mean "place" or "website"? How is sitio used in Spain?

Literally, sitio means place/spot/space. But in everyday European Spanish, sitio can also mean “website”, especially in context:

He encontrado un sitio muy útil para aprender inglés.
→ I’ve found a very useful site to learn English. (a website)
¿Conoces algún sitio donde comprar billetes baratos?
→ Do you know any site / place to buy cheap tickets?

In Spain, sitio is a common, informal way to refer to a website if it’s obvious from context. You can also say:

sitio web = website
página web = web page / often “website” in casual speech

So in the sentence, ese sitio is easily understood as “that website” rather than a physical place.

Who is the subject of explica in porque no explica claramente quién lo escribe? Why isn’t it written?

The implied subject of explica is ese sitio (the website):

[Ese sitio] no explica claramente quién lo escribe.
[That site] doesn’t clearly explain who writes it.

Spanish often omits the subject pronoun or even a repeated noun when it’s obvious from context. Since ese sitio is the last explicit subject mentioned, the verb explica is naturally understood to refer to it.

So the sentence is:

Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio porque [ese sitio] no explica claramente quién lo escribe.

Why is it porque (one word) and not por qué (two words)?

Porque and por qué are different:

porque (one word) = because
- Introduces a reason or cause.
- No voy porque estoy cansado. – I’m not going because I’m tired.
por qué (two words) = why
- Used in direct or indirect questions.
- ¿Por qué no vienes? – Why don’t you come?
- No sé por qué no viene. – I don’t know why he doesn’t come.

In the sentence:

Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio porque no explica claramente quién lo escribe.

porque introduces the reason for not trusting the site → because it doesn’t clearly explain…
There is no question here, so por qué would be incorrect.

Why is claramente used instead of claro or con claridad?

All three are possible, but they differ slightly:

claramente – an adverb, literally “clearly.” Very natural here.
- No explica claramente quién lo escribe.
con claridad – “with clarity,” a bit more formal or emphatic.
- No explica con claridad quién lo escribe.
claro as an adverb (in informal speech) = “clearly,” but more colloquial and usually placed differently:
- No deja claro quién lo escribe. – It doesn’t make it clear who writes it.
- No explica claro quién lo escribe. – Colloquial; heard in speech, less careful.

So claramente is the standard, neutral adverb choice here: correct, clear, and slightly more formal than the most colloquial options.

Why does quién have an accent?

The accent on quién marks it as an interrogative / exclamative form, even inside an indirect question or a subordinate clause.

Compare:

quién (with accent): who? (interrogative)
- ¿Quién lo escribe? – Who writes it?
- No se sabe quién lo escribe. – It isn’t known who writes it.
quien (without accent): relative pronoun, normally meaning “who/whom” in formal or specific constructions:
- La persona a quien se lo conté. – The person to whom I told it.
- Quien lo escribe debería identificarse. – Whoever writes it should identify themselves.

In quién lo escribe, this is an indirect question: who writes it, so we use quién with an accent.

What kind of clause is quién lo escribe? Why is escribe in the indicative, not the subjunctive?

Quién lo escribe is an indirect interrogative clause (an embedded question):

Direct question: ¿Quién lo escribe? – Who writes it?
Embedded / indirect: …explica quién lo escribe. – …explains who writes it.

Because this clause refers to a real, factual question (there is some actual person who writes it, even if we don’t know who), Spanish normally uses the indicative:

No explica claramente quién lo escribe.

You would use the subjunctive with quien when it’s more like “whoever / anybody who,” or when the reference is hypothetical or non-specific:

Quien lo escriba debería firmarlo. – Whoever writes it should sign it.
(Here, escriba is subjunctive.)

What does lo refer to in quién lo escribe? Why lo and not la or le?

Lo here is a direct object pronoun meaning “it”, referring back to ese sitio (the website). Even though sitio is masculine, we often think in terms of the content or text:

quién lo escribe → who writes it (the content, the site)

Why not la or le?

la = feminine direct object → would be used with a feminine noun like la página (the page/site)
- quién la escribe → who writes it (if la página is the antecedent)
le is mostly indirect object in standard Spanish:
- Le escribo una carta. – I write a letter to him/her.

Using le for a direct object (leísmo) is mainly done with masculine people in some dialects, not with things like websites.

So here, lo is the standard, correct direct object for a masculine or neutral “it.”

Could I say Mi hermana no se fía de ese sitio instead of no confía en ese sitio? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Mi hermana no se fía de ese sitio.

In Spain, fiarse de is very common and almost synonymous with confiar en, but with a slightly more colloquial feel and often a bit more emotional / instinctive:

confiar en – to trust (fairly neutral)
fiarse de – to trust, to have faith in / to not be suspicious of

Both would be understood as:

Mi hermana no se fía de ese sitio.
Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio.

Both: My sister doesn’t trust that site.
In everyday speech in Spain, no me fío de… is extremely frequent.

Can claramente be placed in other positions, like no explica quién lo escribe claramente?

You have some flexibility, but the most natural position is the one in the original sentence:

No explica claramente quién lo escribe. ✅

Other possibilities:

No explica quién lo escribe claramente.
Grammatically possible, but it can sound slightly ambiguous: is it “doesn’t clearly explain who writes it” or “doesn’t explain who clearly writes it”? In practice, context usually makes it understandable, but it’s less clean.
No lo explica claramente: quién lo escribe.
This sounds like a reformulation or afterthought—more like spoken style.

So the original order, with claramente right after the verb explica, is the clearest and most natural for saying “doesn’t clearly explain.”

If hermano were masculine, what parts of the sentence would change?

Only the noun (and possibly any adjective that described it) would change. In this sentence, it’s just:

Mi hermana no confía en ese sitio porque no explica claramente quién lo escribe.
→ Mi hermano no confía en ese sitio porque no explica claramente quién lo escribe.

Everything else stays the same:

mi doesn’t change (same for masculine and feminine singular)
confía same (because it’s 3rd person singular: él/ella confía)
ese sitio, porque, explica, claramente, quién lo escribe are unaffected by the sister’s or brother’s gender.