Breakdown of Это горячий чай, а это холодный сок.
это
this / it is
чай
tea
а
and (contrastive)
сок
juice
горячий
hot
холодный
cold
Questions & Answers about Это горячий чай, а это холодный сок.
Why do горячий and холодный have different endings if they both describe masculine nouns?
This is because of a very important spelling rule in Russian! The standard masculine ending for adjectives is -ый, which you see in холодный. However, after the letter ч (and six other specific letters: г, к, х, ж, ш, щ), Russian spelling rules forbid writing the letter ы. You must use и instead. That's why it is spelled горячий.
Since чай and сок are masculine, why do we use the neuter word это instead of the masculine этот?
Because here это acts as a fixed phrase meaning "This is...". Whenever you are introducing or pointing to what something is ("This is hot tea"), you always use the invariable word это, regardless of the noun's gender. You would only use the masculine этот if it was attached directly to the noun, like in этот чай горячий (this tea is hot).
Why is the word а translated as "and" here? Shouldn't "and" be и?
Russian has two main words that translate to "and": и and а. You use и when simply joining similar things together. You use а to show a contrast, a comparison, or a shift in focus—often translating as "but", "whereas", or "and on the other hand". Because this sentence contrasts hot tea with cold juice, а is the natural choice.
How would I change these adjectives if I wanted to talk about a feminine noun, like вода (water)?
To describe a feminine noun in the nominative case, you change the adjective's ending to -ая (or -яя for soft adjectives). So, "hot water" becomes горячая вода, and "cold water" becomes холодная вода.
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 entirely. Therefore, это горячий чай literally translates to "this [is] hot tea".
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