"Cups and plates are tableware."

Translation: Чашки и тарелки — это посуда.

[Ema439209]

Is the это needed in this sentence or is it optional? (I am doing the pick an option exercise so I cannot test it)

[deactivated user]

This sentence sounds very unnatural without «это».

[MichalaK_EU]

Why? It's always taken off !!!

[Red341869]

I was doing this as "type in Russian" and it did not accept it without это. I'm not sure why это would be necessary though...

[shani.gorm]

I have never heard the word "tableware", even after 30 years of American and some international English. I am a native speaker. Posuda is "dishes" or even "kitchenware" which is less specific

[NicMdE21]

@shani.gorm. - I've just seen your interesting comment. Thank you very much indeed. Very helpful!

[lannjenks]

what is the difference between стакан and чашка?

[deactivated user]

Стака́н is usually made of glass and has no handle.

Here's an illustration:

[lannjenks]

how would I tell the difference for translation purposes without context "cup of tea" vs "cup of water" or maybe Стака́н should more represent "glass"?

[deactivated user]

Yes, «стакан» is usually translated as 'glass'.

• cup of water = ча́шка воды́,
• cup of tea = ча́шка ча́я / ча́шка ча́ю,
• glass of water = стака́н воды́,
• glass of tea = стака́н ча́я / стака́н ча́ю (to drink this, you'd probably need a glass holder — подстака́нник, otherwise the стакан will get too hot; unless you're drinking cold tea, but it's not popular in Russian-speaking world)

[Kats87]

Why isn't посуда plural?

[Andrea25636]

Because it is refering to a single group of things as opposed to each individual item in that group. Another example in English would be a crowd. There are many people in a crowd but we talk about them as a single group.

[losada38]

I am unable to type the long bar before the word зто

[rbncruise]

Why not эти?

[JoshuaLmus]

Just to be clear, all nouns in this sentence are in nominative case, right?