Questions & Answers about Это женский магазин.
Why do we use the neuter word Это when магазин is a masculine noun?
When you use "this is" to point something out, you always use the universal word Это, no matter the gender of the noun. You would only use the masculine Этот if you were saying "this shop" directly, like in the phrase Этот магазин.
How would this sentence change if we wanted to say "These are women's shops"?
Why does the adjective женский end in -ий instead of the standard masculine ending -ый?
This happens because of a very important Russian spelling rule. You can never write the letter ы after the letter к. Because of this, the ending must change to -ий.
Is женский an adjective or a possessive word here?
It is a normal adjective describing the type of shop. While English uses the possessive "women's" to say who the shop is for, Russian uses an adjective created from the word for woman (женщина) to mean "female" or "for women".
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