Questions & Answers about Это платье красивое.
Why do we use это here instead of этот or эта?
Because the word for "this" has to match the gender of the noun it points to. The word for dress, платье, is a neuter noun (which you can often guess because it ends in -е). Therefore, we use the neuter form это instead of the masculine этот or feminine эта.
I've seen это used to mean "This is". Does Это платье mean "This is a dress"?
It could, but not in this sentence! When это stands alone to introduce something, it means "this is" (as in Это платье. = "This is a dress."). But here, it is grouped with the noun to point out a specific item, simply meaning "this". Because we have the descriptive word красивое at the end, Это платье acts as the subject: "This dress [is] beautiful."
Why does the word for beautiful (красивое) end in -ое?
Just like "this", adjectives (describing words) must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since платье is neuter, the adjective takes the standard neuter ending -ое. If you were describing a masculine noun, it would be красивый, and for a feminine noun, красивая.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is almost always skipped. You simply put the subject (Это платье) right next to its description (красивое) and the "is" is understood automatically.
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