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Что это / Какой это | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 1 of 9 31 March 2011 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Recently, I've started working with words such as какой and with adjectives. I've also seen demonstrative words such as этот/тот and the like.
Now, my question relates to sentence structures. I'll show an example taken from my textbook. _Какая это рубашка? _Это новая рубашка. I know это usually means "this", such as in "что это", "what's this." What I'm wondering is why the correct way isn't "Какая эта рубашка?" To me, it sounds logical to use the feminine эта instead the neuter это. The only option I can see here is that the это that's used here is the same indefinite (and not neuter) это that's used in the expression что это, but replacing the что with the correct gender of какой - in this case, какая. Following this train of thought, we could say that asking "Какая это рубашка?" is the same as asking "Which one is this there shirt?" And then the answer Это новая рубашка, This there is the new shirt. Can someone please either confirm this or correct me? IMPORTANT EDIT: Following vacatiolegis' post, some lights went on in my mind. So I wish to reformulate my question. Here goes : In "Какая это рубашка?" do это and рубашка simply stand as a redundancy for each another? Do they both relate to the same object but are still kept both there for the sake of agreeing in form with the expression что это? It pretty much comes down to the same as what I was suggesting earlier, "this there shirt" is a redundant form with both "this there" and "shirt" relating to the same object. Maybe it's clearer now? Can anyone else help, maybe a native russian? Edited by FrostBlast on 31 March 2011 at 8:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 3 of 9 31 March 2011 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Fixed the б in рубашка. I tend to invert в and б a lot when typing on a computer. Luckily, I don't do that mistake in handwriting.
Then in what context is it proper to use это and in what context is proper to instead use the gender-declined этот/эта? Edited by FrostBlast on 31 March 2011 at 8:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 5 of 9 31 March 2011 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes but in the example I showed, какая это рубашка, the это can't possibly stand for the usual "this is", since it would make the sentence into something like "which one this is a shirt." Makes no sense whatsoever. Now if it's a peculiar sentence construction commonly used in russian, please do say so, but it still sounds mighty wrong to my ear.
It makes more sense to see it as a redundancy, as I suggested earlier, meaning that это can sometimes mean "this is" and some other times, only mean "it" without the implied "is." I can't tell if I'm being clear enough. Russian not having the verb "to be" in the present tense makes comparisons very difficult. I still do think that это having different nuances depending on the context is the best way to tackle the problem - best I can come up with anyway. HELP!! =) Edited by FrostBlast on 31 March 2011 at 8:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 8 of 9 31 March 2011 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Now this clarifies a MANY things regarding sentence structures. Thanks a lot! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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