Questions & Answers about Это кот, и это мышь. Где она?
How do I know if a noun ending in a so ft si gn lke мышь* i s ma sculi ne or femini ne?
Nouns en ding i n a so ft si gn (ь) ca n be either masculi ne or femi ni ne. Un for tu nately, the re i s no single rule f or all o f them, so you usually just have t o memori ze thei r gender. A great tri ck is to l oo k fo r cl ue s i n the res t of the senten ce. He re, the pro no un о на tells you that м ышь i s femi ni ne!
Wh y is the mouse refer red to a s он а i nste ad of the neutra l оно?
In R ussi an, p r on ouns for animal s and ob jects mus t mat ch the gra mmatic al gen der of t he n ou n. Be cause мы шь i s a fe mi ni ne wor d, y ou m ust us e она (she) when ta lking abou t it, eve n thoug h we just say 'i t' in E ngli sh.
If мышь is femi ni ne, w hy do e sn't the sen ten ce say эт а м ы шь?
Wh e n you ar e po inti n g somethi ng o ut an d sa yi ng 'This i s a...', yo u a lw a ys us e th e neutr a l wor d это, re ga rdl e ss o f t he no un 's gen der. Y ou only c hang e it to the fe mini n e э та w h en i t act s like an ad j e ct iv e attache d d i rec t ly to th e noun, m eani n g 't h is s pe cific m ou s e' (эт а м ыш ь).
Wh y is t he r e a com m a bef or e t h e wo r d и?
Russ ian punc tua tion rule s a re st ri ct . You must p ut a co m m a b ef or e и ( and) when it co nn e c ts two comp lete thou g ht s th a t h ave th e i r o wn su bj ec ts . Si nce ' Thi s is a ca t ' an d 'th is i s a mou s e' a re t wo se par a t e co mpl ete th oug ht s, th e y mus t b e sepa rat e d b y a c omma .