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- A Guide to Using ЭТО
A Guide to Using ЭТО
I've seen so many people confused with "это" and "этот/эта/эти" that I decided to write an explanation of these. I have not seen any special post for this so far.
ЭТО - the demonstrative pronoun
It means "this/these" as in "This is a pen" or "These are ducks". Note that we don't use any equivalent of "is" in Russian, so you can even think of the pronoun-like "это" as of "this is/these are" (even if it is not exactly correct).
Examples:
- Это собака. This is a dog.
- Это мальчик. This is a boy.
- Это кошки. These are cats.
- Это моя машина. This is my car.
- Это правильный ответ. This is the correct answer.
"Это" is also used in definitions:
- Собака - это животное. A dog is an animal.
- Курица - это не рыба. Chicken is not fish.
You can omit "это" in such cases, but keep the dash.
ЭТОТ / ЭТА / ЭТО / ЭТИ - the demonstrative adjectives
They mean "this" or "these" as in "this pen" or "these ducks". These words are always used with a noun and must agree with its gender:
ЭТОТ is for masculine nouns:
- этот стул = this chair
- этот мальчик = this boy
- этот рис = this rice
ЭТА is for feminine nouns:
- эта девочка = this girl
- эта тетрадь = this notebook
- эта лошадь = this horse
ЭТО is for neuter nouns:
- это яблоко = this apple
- это море = this sea
- это задание = this task
ЭТИ is for plural nouns of any gender:
- эти мальчики = these boys
- эти девочки = these girls
- эти яблоки = these apples
What Is Confusing
You may have noted that "это" can be both a demonstrative pronoun and a demonstrative adjective of the neuter gender. So, "это яблоко" may mean both "this apple" and "this is an apple", and without context you can only tell them apart by the first capital letter and a fullstop in case it is a sentence.
- это яблоко = this apple // a phrase
- Это яблоко. = This is an apple. // a sentence
A Rule of Thumb
- If you can replace "this/that/these/those" with "it" or "they" → use the undeclined "это" (demonstrative pronoun)
- If you can't → use the declinable "этот/эта/это/эти" (demonstrative adjective)
Examples:
- This is a table → It is a table? Looks fine! → Это стол.
- This table is mine → It table is mine? No way! → Этот стол мой.
- These are books → They are books? Looks fine! → Это книги.
- Are these books yours? → Are they books yours? No way! → Эти книги ваши?
Declensions
For those who already made it to the Russian case system, here is the declension table for the demonstratives. I placed neuter next to masculine because their forms are the same in many cases.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9qcquawa0cahr1/eto.png
Sorry, Dropbox has broken something and I can't paste it as a picture any more.
The accusative forms written with a slash are for animate/inanimate nouns (like "этого кота / этот стол").
Hope this helps!
326 Comments
1778
OK, so basically, to recognize between the demonstrative pronoun and the demonstrative adjectives, you only have to ask yourself: Which is the subject? Is "This" or another word?" If it's "this" the subject then, you only have to use ЭТО. Is not "this" the subject? Then use ЭТОТ / ЭТА / ЭТО / ЭТИ.
Example:
This is a pen
Which is the subject? "This"
So "this" is ALWAYS translated as ЭТО.
This chair
Which is the subject? (The) chair. "This" acts as an adjective (in this particular case, this indicates how close is the chair to).
So you have to use ЭТОТ / ЭТА / ЭТО / ЭТИ.
I get crazy trying to understand this. But I think that I finally did it!
What will help immensely is context as stated. If you need to identify something, ( Что это)?, the response will start with Это. On the other hand, if you know the topic (normally the grammatical subject), then the demonstrative is used.
Почему ты не смотришь спортивную программу по телевизору? Этот телевизор не работает.
In Russian, these "identifying" words are used less often.
Боже мой, ещё раз Телевизор не работает. Is more likely.
The demonstratives are needed when there is confusion.
Не на той странице но на этой!
- 1778
I don't think so :P.
The subject of a sentence is a person or thing that performs the action of the verb. And in the first setence the one who is performed an action (the action is the verb "to be") is "this". Not the "pen". But well, maybe I'm wrong so...can you explain why do you think other thing?
I see this a LOT on Duo.
There is a huge difference between passive and active in English. The pen performs the action of the verb, but 'to be' only denotes STATE, not action. Therefore, the subject is actually 'pen.' And 'this' is functioning as a pronoun adjective (IIRC).
And to think, I HATED sentence diagraming in 6th grade.
Thanks,
Wayne
Actually, words like "pen" in sentences like "This is a pen" are predicative nominals (i.e. they are the part of the predicate).
Both are used. Though, the usage of "This is him" suggests that many native speaker intuitively feel that the thing that goes after a copula is not the subject. The point of divergence between prescriptive grammars of the past and actual usage is whether you should use the subjective or the objective form with a copula. The confusion naturally comes from the fact that English does not distinguish between its grammatical cases, except for personal pronoun.
- Russian does distinguish them, for one. Depending on the copula, the tense and the exact meaning, a predicate nominal may use the Nominative of the Instrumental.
You may build your own grammar of English (if you wish). Then Bob in "Bob is a cat" and this in "This is a cat" may very well be adjectives, and "cat" may a subject of both. If we are talking about grammar you studied at school (or any theory of syntax in use by linguists, for that matter), they are not.
- the English copula allows for an inverse structure. You may use both "The issue is the increase in the core's temperature" and "The increase in the core's temperature is the issue", sometimes only different in intonation (and even that is not guaranteed). In such cases, one should pick the interpretation first, and only then pass judgements about the structure (usually, "the issue" would be the subject).
- 1778
OK.
But then in a phrase like "This is blue", according to you, which is the subject of that phrase?
If blue is your dog? 'Blue' would be the subject, if blue is a color, it would modify 'this.'
Any chance you can expand this to include like....exactly where этого fits in? I think that's the...accusative or genitive form, but if you can list all the forms of it and where we use them, that would help complete this!
Wiktionary.com has pages in English for most Russian words, and they include declension and conjugation tables. I've found it to be super helpful!
As a pronoun adjective, этот should agree with the noun it describes in gender, number and case. So it has forms for oblique cases, too.
Hmmm, I don't think cases are really necessary in this basic guide, but l will think of a way to add a table of declensions.
I added a table of declensions. I won't cover the usage of every case in this guide, though - I don't want to overwhelm you with information. It is better to learn cases and their usage one by one, like it is done in the course.
Right you are olimo, although I also find it helps to have a slot into which to pigeon-hole cases when learning. One of the very helpful things you've provided here is a partial structure for that, pre-assembled. So it's a matter of making the right use of the tool. Rather than trying to learn things a whole structure at a time, just know they're there, reference each new item as it comes and find its place, and look back there also for refreshers and comparisons. Best of both worlds. Thanks so much for this very useful aid!
Я не знаю этого мальчика (nom. этот мальчик). Я не видел этого дерева ("Я не видел это дерево" тоже правильно).
To check if you should say "Эти яблоки" or "Это (-) яблоки", think like that: 1) Do you see these apples (to point at them as at the particular apples you are going to talk about) or ever mentioned THESE apples before? 2) Do you want to emphasize that these things on a table are apples and not watermelons?
If yes is the answer on the 1st question then you say "Эти яблоки" (it is usually a part of a sentence and after goes smth else, for example what has happened or will happen to THESE apples), because in such a case "Эти" would mean "These": "Эти яблоки очень сладкие" - "These apples are very sweet". If yes is the second answer then you say "Это (-) яблоки", because you are talking to an idiot who doesn't know that these little fruits on a table are apples: "Это яблоки, а не бананы, болван" - "These are apples, not bananas, dumby".
Another case: "Это облако" and "Это (-) облако" ("this cloud" and "this is a cloud") (WARNING: in this case the only difference is intonation) 1) Do you see this cloud (to point at it as at the particular cloud you are going to talk about) or ever mentioned THIS cloud before? 2) Do you want to emphasize that this thing in the sky is a cloud and not a bird/ rainbow/ whatever can be in the sky?
1) Your friend sees a cloud shaped like a cat. He points at it to show this particular cloud to you and says: "Это облако похоже на кошку" - "This cloud looks like a cat". You remember this cloud the next day and tell your other friend: "Недавно видел облако. Это облако было похоже на кошку" - "I saw a cloud not so long ago. This cloud looked like a cat". 2) You and your friend are playing football. Suddenly your friend sees a shadow on the ground and asks you: "What the hell it is?" You reply: "Это облако" - "This is a cloud".
That's a great guide, very good work! But I wanted to point out two minor issues: when "это" is omitted there is no need for the dash in the negative sentences, i.e. "курица — это не рыба", but "курица не рыба". Also we do have an equivalent of "is" — "есть", although it is rarely used. You can say "собака есть животное", even though it sounds rather old-fashioned.
To be even more old-fashioned, we have the plural of "есть" -- "суть" (not a noun in this case, see https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/быть for other old forms of "to be": "есмь", "есмы", "еси", "есте" ): "Cобака и кошка суть животные" (but people do not usually speak this way).
I studied Russian for many years, though I didn't go full-on, balls-to-the-wall with it (hence why I'm using Duolingo to practice vocab). With a solid base, but being extremely far from any kind of fluency, even I have been able to find some definitively incorrect things in the Russian beta exercises. One of them involves Это. (There are a lot of issues with synonyms not being accepted.)
"That." It doesn't accept "that." In all the sentences with "это" that I've seen so far, "that" would've been valid.
That's all I have to say about Это. )))
If you find examples of that, report them :)
Thanks for the excellent explanation, Olimo!
When your answer is not accepted in a lesson, you can use the "Report mistake" button and select "My answer should be accepted". If it's valid, the course developers will add it.
This option is only present in the full web version, though.
I also see it on the Android app. But when I view the full web version, there are some contexts where the button doesn't appear. For example, if I use my Nexus 7 and view the web version in portrait orientation, the button is missing. But it reappears when I switch to landscape.
That's just one of several differences in the web layout I see on my Nexus 7 in landscape vs. portrait. Another is that the Latin/Cyrillic toggle button in the Russian course seems to disappear in portrait. (On the other hand, with my Nexus 9, I always seem to see the full site in either orientation.)
This is a very well written guide! I would be interested in seeing some future guides from you as they are written so clearly and with samples! Thanks for writing this.
This is phenomenally helpful. Thank you very much for writing this up. I think I'm going to bookmark this so that I can come back to it for future reference. I just have one question, in regards to this:
"это яблоко = this apple // a phrase Это яблоко. = This is an apple. // a sentence"
Does "this apple" always strictly have to be a phrase, and can never be a complete sentence? What about situations where it might be an answer to a question? Such as: A: "Which apple did you take?" B: "This apple." Would person B's answer here be automatically interpreted as "this is an apple", and just cause confusion for person A? If so, how would one say the equivalent of "this apple" as a full sentence response?
Sure, you can use the phrase as a short answer (rather than say Я взял это яблоко). You will also stress "это" or even drop "яблоко".
- Какое яблоко ты взял?
-
Это яблоко. // or even simply: Это. Or even: Вот это (showing it).
-
Что это?
- Это яблоко.
Could "Вот это" be translated to something like "this [one] here"? Or perhaps "here [is] the [one]"?
Yes. We don't have the word for "one" as in "this one", so we just say "this" - это. "Вот" is to emphasize pointing to or showing something.
- 470
I think I might also have seen это as a translation for 'the' in the reverse course, even though normally Russian doesn't use articles.
Yes, you can translate "the" with "этот/эта/это/эти" if you can replace "the" with "this/these" in English.
Example:
I see a boy. The boy is eating an apple. → I see a boy. This boy is eating an apple.
Both "Я вижу мальчика. Мальчик ест яблоко" and "Я вижу мальчика. Этот мальчик ест яблоко" are fine.
If "this" does not fit instead of "the", you shouldn't translate "the" as "этот":
I need to go to the bathroom - Мне нужно в ванную (not "в эту ванную" because you don't mean "this bathroom" but just bathroom).
Enforcing "этот" as a translation for "the" was a workaround for the course developers to give the learner some clue about using the definite article. It was the best way they could think of, and I can hardly think of anything better in Duolingo environment.
Indeed, I teach English to Russian speakers, and knowing when to use the article is one of the most difficult aspects of English for them to master. I have Russian colleagues who publish academic articles in English and still make rampant article mistakes.
My inlaws came to the US and learned English in the late 70s and they STILL mess up definite and indefinite articles more than pretty much any other thing.
The only other thing they do (which I don't believe is technically wrong, just awkward) is construct future tense like they would in Russian: "You will go to the store and pick up groceries?". That could possibly be a request "Will you go to the store..." or it may also just be a question "Are you going to the store.."
It's the true hell of English language (and other languages with articles) for those who don't have these articles at all. I still don't understand why you use them even though I've been studying English for more than 10 years now. But sometimes I find them pretty useful.
I'm sure it feels very foreign to Russian speakers. The thing is (normal, unemphasized "the"), it gives room for considerable subtle nuance. "A" thing is one particular thing singled out from among other possibilities, which is also why one is able to make it into "a thing" (a one-and-only type of thing) that virtually draws attention to itself without overt action, which articles themselves can become for Russian speakers. And that's how it can develop into "the thing about English", that emphatically bothersome sticking point that never fails to confuse or mystify. It's all about emphasis and distinction, and I can understand why it would be so hard to understand when it's not a native type of expression. But the lowly article can be rich in connotation. A lot of it lies in the intonation of how it is said. "A thing" is just some specific thing until you heighten its pronunciation to "a thing", which draws attention to the fact that there are other things also, a fact that might not seem to be so apparent or so important in context, at first sight, but whose significance is thus highlighted. And that's nearly opposite to "the thing", which is so emphatic that (almost) no other thing at all is even possible in context (nothing else matters). I hope this serves to give you a little of the flavor of the thing (the article, that is) - "the" serving in this case to indicate that "article" is used as the name of a classification of word, and "thing" as the abstract idea of its usage, in both cases a concept rather than something concrete. Yikes! It almost confuses me to try to explain it!
Has this этот for "the" workaround then in turn influenced the Russian for English Speakers course? Этот, along with the other demonstrative adjectives, appears so frequently here that I can't help but think the course developers just transferred over already built sentences, or am I mistaken in thinking that the demonstrative adjectives can't honestly be as common as the Duolingo course makes them seem?
A bit not as common. If we would stay completely tru to reality, people rare say something like "I already read a book", they usually say "I already read it".
However, making up every sentence with "it" would no be very educational. If we refer to objects and persons more specifially that "she, "he" and "it", I don't think there's something wrong with " I already read that book" or "That woman did not say anything".
Thank you for your quick reply! The insights of native speakers are invaluable. I realize that to get the true sense of a language you must immerse yourself in a lot of both the spoken and written forms. In any case, you're absolutely right about the way we generalize in English using "it", and such generalizations don't lend very well to vocabulary building.
All languages tend to be economical. I even think that textbooks and courses are very useful to have because it has slightly higher concentrations of new material. The idea that first 2000 words cover 70% of what is said is a double-edged sword: it means that after a certain threshold you do not learn much new even if you digest huge quantities of new texts and conversations every day.
Seconding the rec for the frequency dictionary for anyone who wants to get serious. It was our bible in 4th year.
Some kind and conscientious person has put all 10K on a Memrise course, which is a fantastic resource.
You're absolutely right Shady_arc. What you're talking about is that vocabulary threshold often mentioned that needs to be overcome when going from the intermediate to advanced level. The 2000 words number you mention seems to be the common consensus for the intermediate level of any language, which then frighteningly jumps to between 10 and 20 thousand words when approaching an advanced or "mastery" level. Fortunately we're not left without the tools for the task. I've found the Compact Oxford Russian Dictionary (denotes key words) and Russian Learner's Dictionary to be very helpful in this regard, the latter being a 10,000 word frequency dictionary. I would recommend both to anyone who wants to eventually move beyond the basics offered by textbooks and courses such as Duolingo, though I must admit not everyone probably finds dictionary reading as enjoyable as I do. ;)
Thank you for this guide! It is very clear and informative. I have only just begun the Duo Russian program, and so far it seems to use eto for everything, and doesn't really specify or make note anything you've written here. Maybe it does later, beyond the basics. But I feel like maybe this should be mentioned in the beginning, to prevent those of us who are new to the language from getting into bad habits and using wrong pronouns that will slow us down later when we have to relearn what we thought we understood.
I know the program is still in beta. I'm just glad it is finally accessible. I'll keep an eye out for corrective guides - yours and others!
Does Russian differentiate between proximal, medial, or distal demonstratives?
Yes, этот / это / эта / эти are proximal and тот / то / та / те are distal.
I added a rule of thumb that just came into my mind. I hope this will help you to quickly determine whether you have to use "этот/эта/это/эти" or just "это".
Would it be wrong to say that это is the same as the French cela/ceci/ça (demonstrative pronouns), with этот/эта/это/эти being ce/cet/cette (demonstrative adjectives)? Since in English they're the same, was wondering if I could make a connection to French.
As someone who is a Russian native speaker , I've never learnt the rules - I use this account to teach friends Russian ! And I've had a hard time explaining the technical words to them ! THANK YOU !
As you can see, I'm still at the beginning of my journey through the Russian language, but this was super helpful! I was actually wondering about this earlier... Thank you!
How would you say, "This is boring?" Not saying that this is boring, I just really want to know.
Interestingly one of my favourite parks in Moscow is called "Нескучный сад" which more or less translates as "The not boring park" :) https://www.google.com/maps/place/Neskuchny+Garden/@55.7170686,37.5881317,14.5z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0x1ad024ed390a76e5
Some people say "skuchn[a]", but it should be "skuSHna". This is one of the words with -чн-, -чт-, where "ч" sounds like "ш".
An unemphasized "о" in the end of the word, just like an unemphasized "а", are officially pronounced more or less the same, as something in between [o] (in "dog") and [a] (in "part"). Accents (like church Russian) may bias to pronounce "о" as [o]. As for [ch] (in "church") or [sh] (in "shallow"), [sh] variant is generally considered Moskovite accent, but is widely accepted as the correct form - except for some specific words like "булочная" or "молочная", which would only be pronounced as "булоШная" and "молоШная" by elderly if not extinct Moskovites :-)
As for me - all 4 ways are good. o/a , ch/sh - In different parts of Russia you can hear it differently and nobody cares.
Why learn such a useless sentence?
Maybe instead you should be asking how to say, "Instead of this, it'd be fun if we...".
This translates to "Было бы веселее/интереснее/лучше, если бы вместо этого мы ..."
Wow....the phrase Мне скучно is ver common in Russian. You will hear it often enough.
I'm not planning on learning Russian. I just wanted to know how to say that one sentence. I'm not going to use it for anybody. Is there a problem?
"Why do you not Russian learn?" is not properly said. It would be "Why are you not learning Russian?". Not trying to be rude, but wanted to correct this mistake.
Actually, I would say it as "Why don't you learn Russian?" I think the question is intended to phrase a mere neutral inquiry, not to be nosy or make a pointy judgment, which your phrasing could be taken to imply.
I would Albanian learn, but I plan not to travel to Albania anytime soon. Also you need not learn Russian. I was only curious why you are not Russian learning
The sentence i always try to learn is "sorry i do not speak (the language you are speaking)" is funny and one of the most useful while you become capable of actually speaking the language.
Yes, that and later maybe 'I don't speak your language very well' - or if you are a bit trollish - then 'I am not fluent in your language' using mostly an uncommon and sophisticated phrase :D
«Это яблоки».
Sentences like "This is ...", "These are ...", "That was ..." etc. always start with an «это» in Russian and with a «це» in Ukrainian. The gender and number of what follows does not matter.
My understanding is that:
"Это яблоки." = "These are apples.", and "...эти яблоки..." = "...these apples..."
So how do you say, "that was fun, but this is not fun"? Twice "это"? A form of Тот is never used?
I'd say "это (pointing) было весело, а это (pointing again) нет". But it would be better to name the exact things that were fun/not fun.
"Тот" is mostly used as a demonstrative adjective. Эта книжка интересная, а та нет.
I feel that when using "то" and "это", "это" should go first (just like you did): "Это было весело, а то -- нет".
- 165
I admit I haven't read all 103 current comments (104 counting this one!), but I agree that this is a nice explanation. I have one other small point to add, though: it might be worthwhile to give a brief explanation of how a demonstrative pronoun differs from a demonstrative adjective even in English - something along the lines of "This is a man" (where you can substitute "he" for "this" and it makes perfect sense, showing that it is a pronoun) vs. "This man is tall" (where substituting "he" for "this" makes no sense at all, showing that it is an adjective). That might make the distinction easier to understand in Russian or any other language.
I'm just starting, and haven't learned the declensions yet. But I just wonder if the instrumental or prepositional is somehow related to the ablative declension in latin (specially the prepositional). Instrumental is a new idea for me, though its name makes sense.
Casus Ablativus is genetically unrelated to any Slavic case. However, Latin Casus Ablativus and Slavic Intrumental Case share some common roles, particularly the instrumental role. Prepositional case is former Locative which had disappeared in Latin. Well, it's another function of Casus Ablativus being with a preposition, yes.
I personally thought of Casus Ablativus as of Instrumental case since it can be used without prepositions.
Oh, I didn't even know that there was a Locative, very interesting. But thank you for the answer, exactly what I wondered. Спасибо!
this was so helpful thank you!! it would be awesome if you could make one for the differences between мой/ моя/ мне etc as well!!! (because that confuses me a lot...)
@olimo, в Вашем сообщении сбилось форматирование. Не могли бы вы его поправить?
Заголовки первого уровня сейчас не работают, зато с заголовками второго уровня (поставьте ---- на следующей строке после заголовка или ## перед текстом), третьего (### перед текстом) и так далее работают.
Спасибо за напоминание. Знала, но все никак не могла собраться сделать таблицу картинкой и поправить заголовки. Исправила.
Спасибо тебе автор, иностранцы всегда путаются в таких правилах :) А ещё в "тся/ться"(хотя я и некоторые русские/белорусские/украинские и т.д. люди также их путают), так забавно было видеть как какой-то англоязычный человек написал "очинь срасибо"! Это было мило :)
"is"
Мы опускаем глаголы. Вместо "Это является яблоком" в устной речи мы говорим "Это - яблоко".
Когда мы начинаем учить английский, мы учимся не пропускать глагол "является".
позволю себе уточнить Ваш коммент. В русском опускается глагол "быть" в настоящем времени. Мы не говорим "я есмь девочка", или "это есть лошадь". Хотя в прошлых веках назад глагол "быть" в настоящем употреблялся, спрягаясь соответственно "я есмь", "ты еси", "они суть" и т.д. Иногда сейчас можно сказать тоже, употребив форму глагола "быть" , но это будет звучать в пафосных и торжественных событиях. К примеру, "Это ЕСТЬ наша грандиозная задача!"
Это долго. Если коротко, учу корейский и мне очень помогает знание трудностей, которые возникают у корейцев, изучающих русский. Иногда это дает больше, чем объяснение правил. Если еще короче, могу удалить.
this a great guide bro!! Since you are lvl 20 in spanish... yo creo que deberías hacer una guía para hispanohablantes porque entender la lógica del inglés para poder entender la del ruso es bastante difícil. Cuál es tu idioma nativo, por cierto?
Eso explica mucho!! No lo hubiera notado. Your english is very neat, gratz for that!! спасибо :D
Yes, it does. Sorry you got so many downvotes. Sheesh...Here I gave you a +1.
It seems like a good way of understand the distinction between the demonstrative pronoun and the demonstrative adjective is to describe a neutral object that can take the form of any object (not considering anything in particular):
это собака (this neutral object that happens to be a dog)
Whereas the adjective-form describes something unique or in particular:
эта тетрадь (this exact notebook)
This was very helpful, and much more clearly explained than anything I've found so far.
thanks a lot!! I had this problem for a long time, but now I understand very clearly. thank youuuuu.
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Oh, thank you so much! I was struggling with that! I was able to copy the chart and save it.
This is super-helpful. I can see that. Yet I still struggle because I do not understand the terms 'Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental and Prepostional. Whenever I have tried to find an explanation, I find these terms are described with the use of other terms I am equally unfamiliar with. Within an arena of native English speakers, English has always been my 'strong subject' and I have consistently been 'above average' but I begin to suspect it is more 'instinct' than learning. Much as a piano player can be taught with great skill and exactitude while a few others simply sit, play and amaze us with unlearned ability. I am hoping that as I plod through, since I am bamboozled by English grammatical terms, I might find my instinct for русский язык simply kicks in. In the meantime, I read many of your explanations, Olimo, and appreciate them very much. It is my hope that I shall, by some marvellous process of linguistic osmosis, eventually chock up some authentic ability. This will not be without the kindness demonstrated by yourself and others who take the time to explain and share your skills with those of us who require a lot of coaching! Please accept this as a sincere expression of gratitude!
Just starting Russian and getting used to the vowel sounds. It's interesting that о sometimes sounds like а, always in это. I also notice that Я can be pronounced ya or more like ye. It will take some getting used to.
It depends on the accent. If the o has accent it must be read o, otherwise it sounds like a. Like in молоко (accent is on the final o, so it's read as malakó)
But in some Russian dialects "o" is pronounced as "o": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_dialects#Isoglosses
i have a question эта is feminine but эта тетрадь notebook is not feminine why did this word use eta then
thanks a lot, this Rule of Thumb is really useful, i am really confusing by these ЭТОТ / ЭТА / ЭТО / ЭТИ words, i'll try this rule next time i review the course.
What do you mean? It would be «с этим» but I am not sure what would you use it for.
Извините. Это был ошибка, но есть "об этом" который значит "about it." Спасибо вам за ответ! Всё ясно)
My Russian is on Duolingo home page and not the duo icon with my other language, so I have to go to Siri and open duo site is this normal. If not tell me how to fix it please. Thank you
Yes it is normal! Because Russian is still in Beta I believe it is not yet available on the duo app.
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Russian was moved to the app a few days ago. The grammar tips are not available there though, unfortunately.
Good thing I came across this guide. I will find it useful further on my Russian studies.
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Your text and table greatly clarified my confusion. Thank you for answering my unasked questions!
Wow thank you so much. I was really struggling with this and your explanation makes it all so logical and understandable. I'm definitely bookmarking this page since I'm going to need it a lot until I get the hang of это and his alternates. XD
Hm. I wonder if we should include a few lines about ЭТО in our Tips :)
I'm sure that will be helpful for new, as well as intermediate learners of the language. I'm just now starting to notice how often это is used in the language.
Yes - please do! A table of some sort would have been very helpful even if we didn't know how to use all the forms right at the beginning. Same goes for everything else with different forms that change depending on case, gender, number, and so forth. It all gets very confusing without something complete to refer back to and put the different forms in context.
They all mean my/mine, but мои is used to refer to multiple objets (my cats - мои кошки), мой is used with masculine gender (my house - мой дом), моя is feminine (my dog - моя собака) and моё is neuter (my name - моё имя). Similar to the French mes (plural), ma (feminine) and mon (masculine).
Certainly, a great job. This was a perfect answer for the questions floating in my head.
thanks a lot. i was confused a lot about это and all the others this really helped.
I've just run into this area and you've made it a lot easier. Большое спасибо!
Amazing guide! Thank you for this, I was so confused that I didn't even know where to be confused!
Could you do one on the difference between the "моя"s please? I can't find anything online about it :/
I'm not an expert with them, but this resource can get you started with them (they're called "possessive pronouns" in grammar-speech): http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/pronouns.php
This should be incorporated as a lesson, if it isn't, already. Great article! Отлично!
Thanks for putting this together! (: This is really helpful for distinguishing between these words. I will definitely refer back to this the more I delve into the Russian language.
Thank you so much for posting this! I will certainly utilize this guide as I continue studying Russian!
Большое спасибо! Этот руководство очень полезный! (I hope I got all of this right!)
I'm so glad that these demonstratives only have one declension for plurals, unlike, say, Polish, which has something like 4 on top of the declensions of seven often irregularly declined (except feminine and feminine-ending nouns) cases (throw a vocative case in there) for the three genders.
Большое спасибо! Это руководство очень полезно! (I hope I got all of this right!)
It is helpful - I always get this wrong in lessons and end up trying to use ето for everything
You can use the Markdown syntax for images:
The fallback text will be used when the reader can't see the image. For example, when your image was deleted, when a reader’s internet connection is too slow and the image wasn’t loaded, or when a reader uses a screen-reader. It’s advised to include fallback text for all the images you use, because otherwise you make the Internet less welcoming for many people: people will know they are missing something, but won’t know what exactly.
The image URL should start with https:// or http:// or //. If you want to use a file from your computer, you need upload it on some server in the internet, and then use the URL of that image. olimo used Dropbox to upload the image. I personally tend to use Imageup.ru. When writing the image URL, make sure you reference the image directly, and not the page with that image. I.e. your Image URL should normally end in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .gif, but not in .html.
For example, to show the Wikipedia logo, you can use the following:
And it will be displayed this way:
You are like an angel who cleared my confusion when i needed it the most! Thank you for this perfect guide!
Thank you. This really helped me a lot especially that i was confused! 2 thumbs up!
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The link to the image for the declension of это table is broken. The image doesn't appear to be there any more or the site no longer exists. Does anyone have a different link to the same image>
What happened to the table? I was hoping to figure out what этой is...I assume it's prepositional feminine, based upon the context - ?
Sorry, this is something in Dropbox, and I can't insert it as a picture anymore. For now, I inserted a hyperlink.
If эти is for Plural Nouns, why did you say "Это книги." ? is that a typo or correct?
«это книги» — "This is books" (What's this? This is books!)
«эти книги» — "these books".
Здравствуйте! Приятно познакомиться. Меня зовут Махмуд. Hello! Nice to meet you. I am Mahmood. I am learning Russian too. If you don't mind, we could be good friends. We could talk to each other and exchange our respective experience in learning Russian language. Here is my FB messenger profile name if you would like to join me-(Mhd Amn). My user name is; m.me/mhd.amn.1029. Awaiting for you.
Thanks for the guide it really helped! Спасибо за руководство, это действительно помогло!
Thank you this is very helpful. Last use unexplained remains this one : why is “чей это телефон?» and not «чей этот телефон?»? It doesn’t fit into the rule and just drives me crazy, all Russian just tell me « it’s like that » :) Thanks!
This is really helpful! Completely beside the point, why is everyone who's commented learning so many languages!? It's hard enough for me to stick to one
that clears a lot of things for me. i've just started learning russian and that explains to me how to use ЭТО. thank you!
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Hi, let me thank you for this splendid explanation. I hope that this wonderful discussion is still alive. My problem in learning Russian in Duolingo is completely different. I attend several language courses in DL and in some languages I already had previous knowledge. Thus it is rather easy to attend several courses. But here is my problem in the Russian course. In most other languages the sentences/words are clearly understandable. Only in Russian I sometimes get the feeling that the speakers purposely pronounce the words in a way that they are not understandable, especially for beginners. It is of no help if a native speaker answers that the word was understood. I am a beginner and I have to rely on clear pronuciation. Is there a reason for that? The same problem I have now with the female speaker in Latin.
Спасибо, расскажите пожалуйста про падежи, склонения и спряжение глаголов.
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they both mean "yours" but 1) ваш is referred either to more people or a single person addressed in a formal way - also it is masculine 2) твоя is referred to a single person addressed in a informal way - also it is feminine
thank you , it's clear now, i asked several native russians and they couldnt explain me but you could :)
Hi! I'am Russian! in my church I have Russian school. пока береги себя!
Just came looking for this today and it honestly is so helpful thank you. I kept getting that wrong in my sentences and was like *you literally just told me это was the correct word in the previous translation". Thank you. <3
I guess I understand the symbolism of yin-yang when talking m/f but how the HECK can rice be gendered :/ I'm so confused lol. The boy's rice? The girl's notebook?? Or should I read it again?
ЭТОТ and ЭТО are enough. In modern Russian you can use just the male form without any problems.
Excuse me but I’m half Russian and I would just like to say that according to RUSSIANS themselves это does NOT mean this and they. They is они and this is эта. Это actually means the, it, and it is. So sorry to burst your bubble but this is from the Russian learning courses on Rosetta Stone and duolingo, plus Russians.
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Are you aware that the person who wrote this post is not half russian, but fully russian? And that nobody said it could mean "they"? Do you know any grammar principles in general?
why do you need a guide for this thing? bassicly it just means "this is" simple as that. >:0
Because it doesn't just mean 'this is'. If it were as simple as that, yup, no need for a guide, but it's not.
It’s not ‘this is’ at all. This guys got it all wrong. It’s it is,it,and the are what это means. They is они and this is етА
Because it's not just "this is", sometimes it is "that is" and sometimes it is "this" and sometimes it is "that". Also it changes depending on the case.
in russian there is much more than just a word. there are cases and conjugations and genders. with this mindset you have, you will not go far in learning.
