"A rat is black."

Translation: चूहा काला होता है।

[AnCatDubh]

I still don’t get the difference between है and होता है

[Shivaadh]

I'm alsi stumped. This is all I managed to find:
"होता

/hotā/

could modal verb

You use could to indicate that something sometimes happened.

He could be very pleasant when he wanted to." (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/hindi-english/%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE).

But wouldn't that mean the correct translation here is "The rat may be black"???

[RaajkumarMS]

Hota is used to refer to universal truths. Here this means 'A rat is always black'.
Not a native speaker so any counter opinions?

[LobsangC]

Well, usually rats are grey, so it made me think for a sec.

[ULF702944]

Depends on where you are living. The brown rats eradicated the black ones in sweden, the last time they were observed is 1994 in a town called Kalmar..The black rat is THE rat in Asia Rattus Rattus and the brown one Rattus Norvegicus is "our" rat. My facts are from the swedish university for agriculture..Here is the link.
https://artfakta.se/artbestamning/taxon/rattus-norvegicus-206009
Have a nice day!

[ritahira2]

I don't either. I also don't understand why they didn't include ek in the answer as the initial sentence refers to "a". I know the word will say if it isn't singular but it seems that they do this sometimew and others not.

[Shivaadh]

I read somewhere that ek would usually be left out in Hindi.

[Beth205297]

I'm not seeing anyone answer this question that several have asked. When do you use hota and when not? They give both options, but mine was marked incorrect.

[Prasanth538744]

Is it correct?