Questions & Answers about Это моё дело.
Why do we use это here instead of a gendered form like этот?
In this sentence, это is a fixed word that means "this is". When introducing or identifying something ("This is my business"), we always use это, regardless of the gender of the noun that follows. You only need to match the noun's gender when saying "this [noun]", like этот дом (this house).
Why is the word for "my" spelled моё instead of мой or моя?
Possessive words for "my" must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because дело ends in -о, it is a neuter noun. Therefore, we use the neuter form моё. For comparison, you would use мой for masculine nouns and моя for feminine nouns.
Does дело mean a commercial business, like a company?
No. While дело translates to "business" here, it means a "matter", "affair", or "personal concern"—exactly like the English phrase "mind your own business". If you want to talk about a commercial enterprise or shop, you would use the borrowed word бизнес.
How does моё relate to the personal pronouns we are currently studying?
While your current lesson focuses on how personal pronouns like я (I) change after prepositions, моё is its possessive counterpart ("my"). The key difference is that possessives act like adjectives: they don't change based on prepositions acting on "you", but rather they change their form to match the noun they own (in this case, the neuter noun дело).
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