Breakdown of Во-первых, это дорого.
это
this / it is
дорогой
expensive
во-первых
firstly, in the first place
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Questions & Answers about Во-первых, это дорого.
Why is Во-первых written with a hyphen and an "-ых" ending?
This is a fixed form used for listing points. It comes from the preposition в (in) plus the plural prepositional case of первый (first). You follow the same pattern for "secondly" and "thirdly": во-вторых, в-третьих. They always take a hyphen.
Why does it start with во- instead of just в-?
Russian often changes the preposition в to во before words starting with certain consonant clusters to make pronunciation easier. For example, "secondly" is also во-вторых, but "thirdly" is в-третьих because the "тр" sound is easier to pronounce after a single в.
Why use дорого instead of the adjective дорогой?
When you use это as a stand-alone subject meaning "it" or "this" to describe a general situation, you must use the short neuter form, which looks exactly like an adverb ending in -о. You only use the full adjective дорогой if you are directly describing a masculine noun, like in the sentence это дорогой ресторан (this is an expensive restaurant).
Is the comma after Во-первых strictly necessary?