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Questions & Answers about Это фиолетовая ручка.
How do I ask 'What kind of pen is this?' to get this sentence as an answer?
To ask 'what kind of' or 'which', you use the question word какой. Because ручка is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine form какая. The question would be: Какая это ручка? (What kind of pen is this?).
Why does фиолетовая end in -ая?
Russian adjectives change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Since ручка (pen) is a feminine noun, the adjective takes the standard feminine nominative ending -ая. If we were describing a masculine noun, the base form would be фиолетовый.
Why is the word for 'this' written as Это, and not the feminine Эта, since ручка is feminine?
When you are introducing or pointing something out and saying 'This is a...', you always use the fixed, neutral form это, no matter the gender of the noun. You only use the feminine эта when it attaches directly to the noun to mean 'this specific pen', like in the sentence Эта ручка фиолетовая (This pen is purple).
Why are there no words for 'is' or 'a' in this sentence?
Russian does not use articles like 'a' or 'the'. Also, in the present tense, the verb 'to be' (is, am, are) is almost always left out. The single word Это does the job of the entire phrase 'This is a'.