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Russian use of это | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| cokate08 Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5848 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 4 09 June 2011 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
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In my Russian class last year, my professor would sometimes use "это" in situations where I had thought it would be unnecessary/impossible to use it. So, for instance, I would say "Война и Мир -- великая работа." But my teacher would sometimes say (please forgive punctuation mistakes), "Война и Мир -- это великая работа." Are both these sentences correct, and if so, are they different at all in meaning? Thanks!
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| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5600 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 4 09 June 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged |
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I am sure that you can say "Война и Мир -- это великая работа". It means "War and peace, this is a great work", where это is a resumptive pronoun. The sentence sounds, as far as I as a learner can judge, quite natural.
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| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5047 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 4 09 June 2011 at 6:03pm | IP Logged |
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Both are completely natural, with no real difference.
Кошка - милейшее домашнее животное. Cat - the cutest domesticated animal. Кошка это милейшее домашнее животное. Cat, it's the cutest domesticated animal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5100 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 4 of 4 10 June 2011 at 5:26am | IP Logged |
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It's important to understand the difference between это as a demonstrative pronoun (in which case we can relate it with этот, тот, эта, та, etc) and это as a resumptive pronoun. When we take it as a resumptive pronoun, it is somewhat "not related" to the demonstratives and covers all genders and numbers indistinctly.
Что это? Это кошка. Что это? Это пиво. Что это? Это газеты. etc. Thus, in my understanding, the sentence "Кошка это милейшее домашнее животное" is meant to be understood as two separate statements : [Кошка] end of first statement and then [это милейшее домашнее животное] end of second statement. A literal translation would be [Cat] end of first statement, and then [that (that thing whatever it is - referring to the cat previously mentionned) is the cutest domesticated animal] end of second statement. You simply have to get the verb "to be" out of your head when you think in Russian. Oh and, please, I'm studying the language at the moment, so do tell me if anything I said is wrong. This is simply my honest understanding of what my teacher has been telling my group, and he seems to agree with me on all levels. Edited by FrostBlast on 10 June 2011 at 5:41am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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