Breakdown of Мы покупаем только эту белую рубашку и это серое пальто.
и
and
мы
we
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
белый
white
пальто
coat
только
only
покупать
to buy
серый
grey
рубашка
the shirt
Questions & Answers about Мы покупаем только эту белую рубашку и это серое пальто.
Why do we say эту белую рубашку instead of эта белая рубашка?
The shirt is the direct object receiving the action of the verb покупаем (we are buying), so the phrase goes into the accusative case. For feminine words, the pronoun эта changes to эту, the adjective белая takes the -ую ending to become белую, and the noun рубашка changes to рубашку.
Why don't the words in это серое пальто change endings in the accusative case like the shirt did?
Because пальто (coat) is an inanimate neuter noun. In the accusative case, inanimate neuter nouns, as well as their matching adjectives like серое and pronouns like это, look exactly the same as they do in their nominative (dictionary) form.
I've seen это used to mean 'this is' with feminine nouns. Why is it used here with пальто?
The word это has two jobs. It can be a fixed word meaning 'this is' or 'it is' (like in это рубашка - this is a shirt). But here, it is a demonstrative pronoun meaning 'this' that must match the gender of the noun. Since пальто is neuter, it uses the neuter pronoun это.
Even though пальто is neuter inanimate, shouldn't it have some kind of case ending since it is the direct object?
пальто is a special exception because it is a borrowed foreign word. Words like пальто, кафе, and метро are indeclinable in Russian, meaning they never change their endings in any grammatical case. We just leave it as пальто and rely on the sentence context to know it is in the accusative case.
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