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Questions & Answers about Искусство — большой интерес.
Why is there a dash (—) in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (is, am, are) is usually skipped. When a sentence simply says "Noun A is Noun B", you often use a dash in writing to replace the word "is". Here, it connects искусство (art) and интерес (interest).
The word искусство is a neuter noun. Why does the adjective большой use a masculine ending?
Adjectives always match the gender of the noun they belong to in the phrase. Большой describes the masculine noun интерес (interest), not the subject искусство. Since it describes a masculine word, it must take a masculine ending.
Why does большой end in -ой instead of the usual masculine endings -ый or -ий?
Most masculine adjectives end in -ый or -ий, but when the stress (the spoken emphasis) falls on the very last syllable of the word, the ending changes to -ой. In большой, you stress the final о.
How would I replace искусство with the personal pronoun "it" in this sentence?
Because искусство is a neuter noun, you must use the neuter personal pronoun оно. The sentence would become: Оно — большой интерес.