"This is Moscow."

Translation: Это Москва.

[curanmor]

ЭТО СПАРТА!!!!!

[Sarah803692]

Haha oh my gosh this made me laugh out loud

[Burke828377]

How do you know which ending to use? Москве Москва

[curt]

Москва is the nominative ending, used when it's the subject of the sentence.

Москве is the prepositional case ending, used to indicate location after в or на: Она в Москве. = She is in Moscow. There are two videos about the prepositional at:
https://youtu.be/kyat8rMHubI
and
https://youtu.be/Vij7y-3nxRo

[LupercalXVI]

I don't understand. The sticky in discussions says to use эта for feminine nouns but it's telling me here the correct translation of "This is Moscow" is это Москва.
Isn't Москва a feminine noun?

[MichaelGia9]

The trick is that in this case, "this" is a pronoun. "This is Moscow". "He is there" "That is Germany". In these cases, это is not changed. However, when I say "this case" or "that case", I'm specifying the noun ("case") with an adjective, "this", thus это must match in gender and number.

[LupercalXVI]

Ah OK, I see now. Thank you so much!

[curt]

Here's a video on this topic:
https://youtu.be/aIi2_gD7hFU
Full disclosure: it's my (non-commercial) youtube channel. If it's not OK to post external links I'll assume the DuoLingo folks will let me know!

[hlnscott59]

Спосибо!!!

[KaoriNagiza]

I love you

[mastersword83]

When does one use "Это" and "Эта"?

[Norrius]

Please see the sticky in discussions.

[mastersword83]

Болшое спасибо!

[jcmouret94]

Большое * :)

[mastersword83]

Большое спасибо!

[RTog6KRX]

why not вот москва

[RobertNett2]

This would mean 'Here is Moscow'

[L-Rell]

I understand that there is a literal difference in meaning between "This is Moscow" and "Here is Moscow". But is there really a semantic difference when it comes to how one would translate that into English? How would Russians use the two expressions, "Это Москва" and "Вот Москва", differently? Or can they be used interchangeably?

[Alexander62682]

Interesting question! I guess the semantics conveys the vantage point of the speaker. A view from the Red Square: это Москва. A view from the space station: вот Москва.

[raquellia1]

Why "это" and not "эта"

[curt]

Here's a video that explains the difference: https://youtu.be/aIi2_gD7hFU

[gabesness]

Чайльдиш Гамбино

[Adde584521]

Это Россия бро

[Dim-ond-dysgwr]

In the audio we hear Мóсква (stress on the first syllable). I'd always thought it was Москвá (with stress on the second syllable).

[curt]

I hear it as stressed on the last syllable, perhaps in part because the pitch drops. But Duolingo often (always?) uses artificially generated speech, so it's not a reliable model anyway. In any case, you're right that Москва is stressed on the last syllable.

[mitch335222]

So when do you have to use that word that means "is"? It's something like "находится" or something like that

[carlmohrhe]

Это Москва. is not accepted. This has been happening several times and I can not complete the lessons when the correct answer is not accepted

[rollydb]

I don't see why I can't let nouns be static. There is absolutely zero reasons to change the spelling of a noun. none.

[Alexander62682]

If you make the nouns static, you end up with a fixed word order in the sentence. Ирина купила водку. Ирин"у" купила водка. Irina bought vodka. Vodka bought Irina. The English compels one to change the word order. The Russian doesn't. Which is quite handy.

[Dim-ond-dysgwr]

The reason you can't is because Russians don't ...and you're trying to learn Russian, right?