Breakdown of Это книга, и она здесь.
это
this / it is
и
and
книга
book
здесь
here
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
Questions & Answers about Это книга, и она здесь.
How do we know the gender of книга just by looking at it?
Look at the last letter! In the nominative (dictionary) form, nouns ending in -а are almost always feminine. Because книга ends in -а, it is a feminine noun.
Why does the second part of the sentence use она (she) to mean "it"?
In Russian, all nouns have a gender, and pronouns have to match the noun they replace. Because книга is feminine, we must use the feminine pronoun она to refer back to it, even for inanimate objects that are called "it" in English.
Why use the neutral word Это at the beginning if the book is feminine?
When introducing something new with the phrase "This is...", Russian uses the fixed word Это, no matter what the gender of the noun is. Once the noun is established, later references to it must match its gender, which is why we switch to она.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In the present tense, Russian almost always leaves out the verb "to be" (am, is, are). So, "This is a book" translates to just Это книга (literally "This book"), and "it is here" translates to она здесь (literally "she here").
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