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Questions & Answers about Это столица.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Russian, the verb "to be" is skipped in the present tense. The word это covers the entire meaning of "this is" or "it is" all on its own.
Since this lesson is about locations, how do I say "in the capital"?
You use the preposition в (in) and change the noun to the prepositional case you are learning now. For a feminine noun like столица, the -а ending changes to -е, making it в столице.
Does это need to change to the feminine form эта to match столица?
Not here! When you are simply pointing something out and saying "This is...", the word это acts as a fixed pronoun that never changes, even before a feminine noun. You would only use эта if you were saying "this capital" directly, like in the phrase "this capital is big".