Breakdown of Где находится этот указатель?
где
where / wherever
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
находиться
to be located
указатель
the signpost
Questions & Answers about Где находится этот указатель?
Why do we need the verb находится here? Couldn't I just ask Где этот указатель?
You absolutely could! Где этот указатель? is perfectly natural and common in everyday speech. Adding находится (which literally means "finds itself," but translates to "is located" or "is situated") just makes the question sound a little more formal or precise, which is very common when asking for directions.
The word указатель ends in a soft sign (-ь). How can we tell its gender from this sentence?
You can tell it is masculine by looking at the demonstrative pronoun этот (this). Because этот is the masculine form, we know that указатель must be a masculine noun. If it were a feminine soft-sign noun, the sentence would use эта. Spotting these modifiers is a great trick for memorizing the gender of soft-sign nouns!
If I wanted to use the grammar from our current lesson and say "I walked past this signpost", how would I do that?
You would use the preposition мимо (past/by) followed by the Genitive case: Я прошёл мимо этого указателя. Notice how этот changes to its Genitive form этого, and the masculine noun указатель drops its soft sign and adds -я to become указателя.
Are there any pronunciation traps in the word находится?