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Questions & Answers about Это первый раз.
Why is первый masculine when the sentence starts with the neuter word это?
Can I use раз to ask "What time is it?"
No, раз means "time" in the sense of an occurrence or instance (like "first time" or "three times"). If you want to talk about clock time, you must use the word время.
Why is there no word for "is" between это and первый раз?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb "to be" (am, is, are) is almost always skipped. The sentence literally translates to "This first time." If you were talking about the past, you would add the past-tense verb: Это был первый раз (This was the first time).
How can I use раз with the time words from this lesson, like вчера (yesterday)?
You can combine them to say when a specific occurrence happened. For example, if you did something new yesterday, you could say Вчера это был первый раз (Yesterday it was the first time).