Questions & Answers about Это современная мебель.
Why do we use это here instead of the feminine эта?
When introducing something with the phrase "This is...", Russian uses the fixed word это, no matter the gender of the noun. You would only use the feminine эта if "this" was describing the noun directly, as in эта мебель (this furniture).
Мебель ends in a soft sign. How do we know it's a feminine noun?
The current lesson covers the prepositional case. Why aren't the adjective and noun in the prepositional case here?
The prepositional case is used mainly to describe location (in, on) or the topic of conversation (about). Here, "modern furniture" is just the thing being introduced in a basic "A is B" sentence, so it stays in the basic dictionary form, which is called the nominative case.
Is мебель singular or plural in Russian?
It is singular. Just like in English, the Russian word мебель is uncountable. It describes furniture as a general category and is always treated grammatically as singular.
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