Learn Russian: Этот пекарь — победитель.

In Russian, when you link two nouns together to say that 'Noun A is Noun B' in the present tense, you use a dash instead of a verb. It acts as the word 'is', since Russian drops the present tense form of the verb 'to be'.

Both пекарь and победитель end in a soft sign (ь). How can we tell what gender they are?

Nouns ending in a soft sign can be either masculine or feminine, which can be tricky to remember. Here, the word Этот is in its masculine form, which is a big clue that пекарь is masculine. Also, победитель ends in -тель, a suffix used almost exclusively for masculine nouns describing a person's role or profession.

Does the ending -тель in победитель mean something specific?

Yes! The suffix -тель is very similar to the English endings '-er' or '-or' (like in 'baker' or 'actor'). It turns an action into the person who does that action. It comes from the verb for winning or defeating, making победитель the winner.

How would I make this sentence plural, like 'These bakers are the winners'?

You would say Эти пекари — победители. For masculine nouns ending in a soft sign (ь), you drop the soft sign and add -и to make them plural. The word Этот also changes to its plural form, Эти.