Questions & Answers about Это был жестокий человек.
Why does the sentence start with the neuter word это instead of он?
When introducing or identifying someone, Russian uses the fixed neuter pronoun это to mean 'this' or 'that'. If you used он, the sentence Он был жестокий человек would mean 'He was a cruel man' rather than 'That was a cruel man.'
Why is the verb был masculine if the sentence starts with the neuter word это?
Why use человек instead of мужчина to translate 'man'?
While мужчина specifically means a male adult, человек means 'person' or 'human'. In Russian, when describing someone's fundamental character or personality traits, it is much more natural to use человек.
Does the ending of жестокий follow a specific spelling rule?
Yes, it follows the 7-letter spelling rule. You cannot write the letter ы after the consonant к (or after г, х, ж, ч, ш, щ). Because of this rule, the standard masculine adjective ending changes from -ый to -ий.
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