Learn Russian: Это дальний район города.

Это дальний район города.

This is a distant part of the city.

Breakdown of Это дальний район города.

Questions & Answers about Это дальний район города.

Why use дальний here instead of далёкий?

Both translate to "distant" or "far," but they are used differently. Дальний is typically used for concrete spatial relationships, relative positions, or standard geographical designations (like a specific district). Далёкий is often used for vast abstract distances, periods of time, or emotional distance.

Why does дальний end in -ий rather than the standard masculine -ый?

It is a soft-stem adjective. Because the stem ends in a soft н, it takes the soft masculine ending -ий. You will see this same soft pattern on many other adjectives related to location and time, such as соседний (neighboring) and сегодняшний (today's).

Why is города in the genitive case here?

The genitive case is used to show a part-to-whole relationship, meaning "of the city." It directly connects the specific district (район) to the larger entity it belongs to (город).

Why does the sentence start with the neuter Это when the main noun район is masculine?

When это is used to mean "this is" or "that is" to introduce a noun, it behaves like a fixed particle. It stays in the neuter singular form regardless of the gender or number of the noun that follows it.