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Questions & Answers about Это утренняя газета.
How is утренняя related to the word for morning?
The basic time word for morning is the noun утро. However, to describe an object (like a newspaper) as belonging to the morning, you must use an adjective. The adjective form is утренний, which changes to утренняя here to match the feminine noun газета.
Why does утренняя end in -яя instead of the usual feminine adjective ending -ая?
Most feminine adjectives take the -ая ending (like новая for 'new'), but утренний belongs to a special group of 'soft-stem' adjectives. Because its core ends in a soft sound, its endings are soft too, making the feminine ending -яя instead of -ая.
Газета is feminine. Why does the sentence start with the neuter word Это instead of Эта?
When you are pointing something out and saying 'This is a...', you always use the fixed default word Это, no matter the gender of the noun. You would only use the feminine Эта if you were saying 'This newspaper...' (for example, Эта газета новая - This newspaper is new).
Why is there no word for 'is' in this sentence?
In Russian, the present tense of the verb 'to be' (am, is, are) is almost always dropped. The sentence literally reads 'This [is the] morning newspaper.'