Questions & Answers about Это близкий магазин.
Why is it Это and not Этот if магазин is masculine?
Here, Это means 'This is'. When introducing or pointing something out ('This is a...'), we always use the neutral Это, regardless of the noun's gender. You would only use the masculine Этот if you were saying 'This shop' (Этот магазин...) as the subject of a larger sentence.
Where is the word for 'is' in this sentence?
Russian doesn't use a present tense verb for 'to be' (am, is, are). You simply put the subject and the description next to each other, so the sentence literally translates as 'This [a] nearby shop.'
Why does the adjective близкий end in -ий rather than the standard masculine ending -ый?
This happens because of a very common Russian spelling rule. You cannot write the letter ы after the letter к (or after г, х, ш, щ, ж, ч). Because the core part of the word ends in к (близк-), the masculine ending has to change from -ый to -ий.
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