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Those darn demonstratives!
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Those darn demonstratives! This is stupid!
This is great!
This presentation is great!
Это as a Demonstrative Pronoun
Ultimately, are you INTRODUCING something (ta-dah!) or are you POINTING at something (and not something else.)
Ta-dah = это (indeclinable)
Pointing = этот, эта, это, эти (declined)
That is great! That is my blouse. Those are green blouses!
Это хорошо! Это моя блузка! Это зелёные блузки!
Notice that the form is fixed, indeclinable, unchanging. Always это.
Moreover, Russian doesn't change the form for plural or for things far away. Compare English:
Those are green blouses. These are green, too.
That is great. This is great.
In Russian, you would replace all the demonstrative pronouns with the indeclinable ЭТО.
Examples of этот as a modifier
- Эта блузка зелёная. (feminine)
This blouse is green. (Not another one)
- Эти блузки мои. (plural)
These blouses are mine! (Not those)
- Этот рюкзак мой. (masculine)
This backpack is mine. (Not that one)
- Это платье красное. (neuter)
This dress is red. (Not that one)
Notice how English has two different functions for the word THIS:
This is a hat!
This hat is green.
The first "this" is a pronoun replacing "hat." The second "this" is an adjective modifying "hat." (This hat, not that hat!!!)
Russian ЭТО
The gender forms are predictable:
- Этот masculine (ending is nothing)
- Эта feminine (ending -a)
- Это neuter (and the same form as the pronoun!)
- Эти plural (unexpected -и makes -т- soft!)
Russian это functions just like "this":
- It can be used as a pronoun (introducing something).
- It can be used as a modifier when you want to differentiate among items (not that one, THIS one!).