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Это не школа, это театр.

Это не школа, это театр.
This is not a school, this is a theater.
From Lesson 7:Basic negation (не)·Russian

Breakdown of Это не школа, это театр.

это
this / it is
не
not
театр
theater
школа
school

Questions & Answers about Это не школа, это театр.

Why is не placed right before школа?
In Russian, you negate a statement by putting не directly before the word you want to negate. Since there is no verb 'is' in the present tense, не goes right in front of the noun школа to mean 'not a school'.
Where is the word for 'is' in this sentence?
In Russian, the verb 'to be' is skipped in the present tense. Therefore, Это школа simply means 'This is a school', and adding не makes it Это не школа ('This is not a school'). You do not need a separate word for 'is'.
Школа is a feminine noun, so why do we use это instead of the feminine эта?
When you are introducing or pointing something out ('This is...'), you always use the fixed, neutral word это, regardless of the noun's gender. You would only use the feminine эта if 'this' was describing a specific noun as an adjective, like in эта школа ('this specific school').
Is there a reason why there are no words for 'a' or 'the' before школа and театр?
Russian does not have articles like 'a', 'an', or 'the'. A noun like театр can mean 'theater', 'a theater', or 'the theater' depending entirely on the context.

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