Questions & Answers about Это вдохновляющий фильм.
Russian makes a distinction that English does not:
- это (neuter) is used in sentences of the type “This is X / It’s X.”
Pattern: Это + noun in the nominative case- Это фильм. – This is a film / It’s a film.
- Это вдохновляющий фильм. – This is an inspiring film / It’s an inspiring film.
Here это is not agreeing in gender with фильм. It behaves more like a fixed “dummy” subject meaning “this is / it is”.
- этот is the masculine form of the demonstrative adjective “this” that directly modifies a masculine noun:
- этот фильм – this film (here)
- Этот фильм вдохновляющий. – This film is inspiring.
So:
- Это вдохновляющий фильм. – we are identifying what something is.
- Этот фильм вдохновляющий. – we are talking about a particular film (already known from context) and describing it.
It can be translated either way, depending on context:
- Это вдохновляющий фильм.
- This is an inspiring film.
- It’s an inspiring film.
In Russian, это in this construction covers both English “this is” and “it is”. The choice in English is stylistic and depends on what sounds more natural in the situation; the Russian original doesn’t change.
Фильм here is in the nominative singular:
- Dictionary form: фильм (masculine, nominative singular)
- In the sentence Это вдохновляющий фильм, it stays in the nominative.
After это used in the meaning “this is / it is”, the noun that follows is normally in the nominative case, because you are simply naming or classifying what something is, not marking it as an object, direction, etc.
Examples with the same pattern:
- Это книга. – This is a book. (книга – nominative)
- Это новый дом. – This is a new house. (дом – nominative)
- Это интересный фильм. – This is an interesting film.
Вдохновляющий is grammatically an adjective here, but it comes from a present active participle:
- Verb: вдохновлять – to inspire (imperfective)
- Present active participle: вдохновляющий – literally “inspiring (something/someone)”
In modern Russian, many participles like this are used almost as ordinary adjectives, especially for describing things:
- вдохновляющий фильм – an inspiring film
- пугающая история – a scary story (from пугать – to scare)
- завораживающий вид – a mesmerizing view (from завораживать – to enchant)
Grammatically, in the sentence it functions just like any other descriptive adjective:
- agrees with фильм in gender (masculine), number (singular), and case (nominative)
- stands before the noun
The ending -ющий is typical of present active participles formed from imperfective verbs:
- вдохновлять → вдохновляющий (one who/that inspires)
- интересовать → интересующий (one who/that interests)
- волновать → волнующий (one who/that excites/agitates)
By contrast, many “basic” adjectives end in -ый / -ий / -ой:
- новый – new
- красивый – beautiful
- важный – important
So вдохновляющий literally means “inspiring (something)”, and its -ющий ending signals that participle origin. But in everyday speech you can just treat it as an adjective meaning “inspiring / inspirational”.
Approximate pronunciation (stress in capitals):
- вдохновляющий – vdahkh-nav-LYA-yu-shchiy
- фильм – feelm (with a soft л)
More precisely:
- вд-: pronounce в
- д together: vd, both voiced.
- -дох-: д
- х, like d
- German ch in Bach: dohkh.
- х, like d
- -вля-: the stressed syllable -вля-: like vlya, with palatalized л (tongue raised).
- -ю-: ю = "yu" as in you.
- -щий: щ is like a long, soft sh, often written shch: shchiy.
Stress:
- вдохновлЯющий – stress on Я
- фильм – one syllable, short, with soft ль: close to feelm but with the tongue touching higher for ль.
Don’t worry too much about clusters like вд and хн at first; try saying it slowly: вдох-но-вля-ю-щий, then speed up.
Yes, you can, but the nuance changes slightly:
Это вдохновляющий фильм.
- Typical translation: This is an inspiring film / It’s an inspiring film.
- Structure: Это + adjective + noun (classification)
- Often introduces something for the first time: “What kind of thing is this? It is an inspiring film.”
Этот фильм вдохновляющий.
- Typical translation: This film is inspiring.
- Structure: Этот фильм + adjective
- Focuses on this particular film which is already known from context, then describes it.
Both are correct; which one you use depends on whether you’re identifying something (“this is an X”) or describing an already identified thing (“this X is like this”).
Yes, but the meaning changes from a full sentence to a noun phrase:
- Это вдохновляющий фильм. – full sentence: This is an inspiring film / It’s an inspiring film.
- Вдохновляющий фильм – just the phrase “an inspiring film” (no verb, no subject).
You would use Вдохновляющий фильм:
- as a title, heading, or label
- as part of a longer sentence:
- Я посмотрел вдохновляющий фильм. – I watched an inspiring film.
If you want a standalone statement like “It’s an inspiring film,” you normally need Это (or Этот фильм, etc.).
In modern Russian, the verb быть (to be) in the present tense is usually omitted in such sentences:
- Это вдохновляющий фильм. literally: This – inspiring film.
- Understood meaning: This *is an inspiring film.*
Using есть here sounds unnatural or overly formal/archaic in everyday speech:
- Это есть вдохновляющий фильм. – grammatically possible but stylistically very odd; you would mainly see есть in:
- existential meaning: У меня есть книга. – I have a book.
- certain emphatic or archaic-style phrases.
So: in “X is Y” statements in the present, Russian normally drops the “is.”
Фильм is masculine (like most nouns ending in a consonant):
- Gender: masculine
- Number: singular
- Case here: nominative
Because adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case, вдохновляющий is:
- masculine (ending -ий / -щий in nominative)
- singular
- nominative
Compare how the adjective changes with different genders/numbers:
- вдохновляющий фильм – inspiring film (masc. sg.)
- вдохновляющая книга – inspiring book (fem. sg.)
- вдохновляющее видео – inspiring video (neut. sg.)
- вдохновляющие фильмы – inspiring films (plural)
Using the same Это + adjective + noun pattern:
- These are inspiring films.
- Это вдохновляющие фильмы.
- вдохновляющие – plural adjective
- фильмы – plural noun
- This is an inspiring book.
- Это вдохновляющая книга.
- вдохновляющая – feminine singular adjective
- книга – feminine singular noun
- This is an inspiring video.
- Это вдохновляющее видео.
- вдохновляющее – neuter singular adjective
- видео – neuter (indeclinable) noun
Notice how это stays the same, but the adjective changes to match the gender/number of the noun.
Фильм and кино overlap but are not identical:
фильм
- A specific film/movie (a countable item).
- You can say один фильм, два фильма etc.
- Your sentence: Это вдохновляющий фильм. – This is an inspiring movie.
кино
- Can mean “cinema” as an art form or industry:
- Я люблю кино. – I love cinema / movies (as a genre).
- Can mean “the movies” (going to the cinema):
- Пойдём в кино. – Let’s go to the movies.
- Used less naturally to refer to a single specific film; saying
Это вдохновляющее кино is possible but sounds more like
“This is inspiring cinema / inspiring kind of movie-making” or a loose, colloquial expression, not “this particular movie is inspiring.”
- Can mean “cinema” as an art form or industry:
So for “This is an inspiring film/movie,” фильм is the most straightforward and natural:
Это вдохновляющий фильм.
Both come from the idea of inspiration, but they focus on different sides:
вдохновляющий фильм
- literally: a film that inspires (others)
- The film makes you feel inspired / motivated.
- Very common way to say “inspiring film”.
вдохновенный фильм
- literally: an inspired film
- Suggests the film itself was created in a state of inspiration; it’s artistically inspired, expressive, perhaps deeply felt.
- Focuses more on the style / artistic quality than on its effect on the viewer.
In most everyday contexts, for “an inspiring film,” you want вдохновляющий фильм.