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Questions & Answers about Это милый мальчик.
Why do we use the neuter это when мальчик is masculine? Shouldn't it be этот?
When you use 'this is' or 'it is' to introduce or point something out, you always use the fixed word это, no matter the gender of the noun. You would only use the masculine этот if 'this' was attached directly to the noun, like in 'this boy is playing' (этот мальчик...).
Where are the words for 'is' and 'a' in this sentence?
Russian does not have articles like 'a', 'an', or 'the'. Also, in the present tense, the verb 'to be' (is/are/am) is almost always left out. So the Russian sentence literally translates to 'This sweet boy', but it means 'This is a sweet boy.'
Why does милый end in -ый?
Adjectives in Russian change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because мальчик (boy) is a masculine noun, the adjective takes the standard masculine ending -ый. If we were talking about a girl (девочка), it would change to the feminine form: милая.