Questions & Answers about Артист и актёр — это профессия.
Why is 'артист' translated as 'performer' and not 'artist'?
In Russian, артист is a false friend. It usually refers to a performer or entertainer on stage, like a singer, dancer, or theatrical actor. If you want to talk about a visual artist like a painter, the word you need is художник.
What is the long dash (—) doing in the middle of the sentence?
Russian does not use the verb 'to be' (like 'am', 'is', or 'are') in the present tense. When you link two nouns together to say 'Noun A is Noun B', you use a long dash instead of a verb.
Why does the sentence use 'это' here? Doesn't that usually mean 'this'?
Yes, это usually means 'this' or 'it'. However, the combination of a dash and это is a very common way to give a definition in Russian. You can think of the phrase '— это' as a set structure that means 'is defined as' or 'are'. Notice that even though we are talking about two things, это does not change form.
Why is 'профессия' singular when we are talking about two things?
Just like in the English translation 'are a profession', the Russian sentence groups both roles into a single category. The sentence is saying that the general concept of being an actor or performer falls under the umbrella of one type of work, so the singular профессия is used.