Breakdown of Это самая широкая река, а там океан.
это
this / it is
а
and (contrastive)
там
there
река
river
самый
most
океан
ocean
широкий
wide
Questions & Answers about Это самая широкая река, а там океан.
Why do we use самая широкая instead of самый широкий?
The word самый (the most) works just like a regular adjective. This means it must match the noun it describes in gender, number, and case. Because река (river) is a feminine noun, both the superlative marker самый and the adjective широкий (wide) must change to their feminine forms: самая and широкая.
Why does the sentence start with the neuter Это if река (river) is feminine?
When you use a phrase like "This is..." to introduce something or point it out, you always use the fixed neuter pronoun Это, no matter the gender of the noun that follows. You would only use the feminine Эта if you were attaching it directly to the noun, such as in Эта река самая широкая (This river is the widest).
Why is the conjunction а used here instead of и for "and"?
In Russian, и is used to simply link similar things together. The word а is used to show a slight contrast or a shift in focus between two different things, people, or locations. Here, we are contrasting what is right here (the river) with what is over there (the ocean). In this context, а acts a bit like "whereas" or "while," even though "and" sounds perfectly natural in English.
Why are there no verbs like "is" in this sentence?
In the present tense, Russian almost never uses the verb "to be." You just place the subject and its description or location side by side. Literally, this sentence translates to: "This [is] the most wide river, whereas there [is] ocean."
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