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Questions & Answers about Это платье.
Since платье is a neuter noun, does это платье mean "this is a dress" or "this dress"?
It can actually mean both, depending on the context! Here, it is a complete sentence meaning "This is a dress." But in a sentence like Это платье красивое (This dress is beautiful), это acts as the neuter demonstrative pronoun "this", matching the neuter noun платье.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the verb "to be" is almost always skipped in the present tense. So, instead of saying "This is a dress," you simply say "This — a dress" (Это платье).
How can I tell that платье is a neuter noun?
You can usually figure out a Russian noun's gender by looking at its last letter. Nouns ending in a consonant are masculine, those ending in -а or -я are feminine, and those ending in -о or -е (like платье) are neuter.
If I wanted to point to a feminine noun, like юбка (skirt), would I change the first word to Эта?
No, to say "This is a skirt," you still say Это юбка. When pointing something out with "This is a...", you always use the fixed word это, no matter the noun's gender. You only use эта when saying "this [feminine noun]", as in Эта юбка новая (This skirt is new).