Breakdown of Это кот, и это мышь. Где она?
это
this / it is
кот
cat
и
and
где
where / wherever
она
she / it (for a feminine noun)
мышь
mouse
Questions & Answers about Это кот, и это мышь. Где она?
Since мышь ends in a soft sign (ь), how can I tell what gender it is?
Nouns ending in a soft sign can be either masculine or feminine, so you often just have to memorize them. However, there is a handy trick for this word! Nouns that end in a "hushing" consonant plus a soft sign (like -шь, -чь, -жь, -щь) are always feminine. Because of the ш, you can reliably know that мышь is feminine.
Why does the sentence use она (she) when the English translation asks 'Where is it?'
In Russian, pronouns like he, she, and it must match the grammatical gender of the noun they refer back to. Since мышь (mouse) is a feminine noun, you must use она (she) to refer to it. Russian doesn't use a neutral "it" for animals the way English often does.
If мышь is feminine, shouldn't it be эта мышь instead of это мышь?
When you are introducing or pointing something out with the phrase "This is a...", you always use the fixed, neutral word это, regardless of the noun's gender. You would only use the feminine эта if it were directly attached to the noun to mean "this specific mouse" (as in, эта мышь ест - this mouse is eating).
Why is there a comma before и (and)?
In Russian, you must put a comma before и when it connects two complete, independent thoughts. Because Это кот (This is a cat) and это мышь (this is a mouse) could both stand alone as full sentences, the comma is required.
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