Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Это квартира.
Why do we use это here instead of эта, since квартира is a feminine word?
Great question! When you use the phrase "This is a..." or "That is a...", you always use the generic word это, regardless of the noun's gender. We would only use the feminine эта if we were saying "This apartment" as a single block, like in "Эта квартира большая" (This apartment is big).
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is almost always skipped in the present tense. Because of this, "Это квартира" looks like it literally translates to "This apartment", but its actual meaning is "This is an apartment".
How do we know it means "an apartment" and not "the apartment"?
Russian does not have articles like "a", "an", or "the". You just have to figure it out from the context. Depending on the conversation, "Это квартира" could translate to "This is an apartment" or "This is the apartment".
Why does the о at the end of это sound like an "a" when spoken?
In Russian, when the vowel о does not carry the word's stress (the spoken emphasis), it is pronounced like a short "a". In the word это, the stress is on the first letter, so the final о makes an "a" sound.