Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use the Russian demonstrative pronouns “этот” and “тот,” including their case agreement.

Lesson Explanation

Этот (this) and тот (that) function similarly to English “this/that,” but — genuinely consistent with everything covered across Parts 2-3 of this course — they must agree in gender, number, AND case with the noun they describe, just like adjectives.

Этот (masc.), эта (fem.), это (neut.), эти (plural): этот стол (this table), эта книга (this book). Тот (masc.), та (fem.), то (neut.), те (plural): тот дом (that house).

A genuinely important, separate use of the neuter form это, already seen in Part 1, Lesson 3’s Кто это?: when это stands alone at the start of a sentence identifying or pointing something out, it does NOT need to agree with the gender of the noun that follows — a genuinely distinctive frozen usage, similar in spirit to French c’est (covered in an earlier-built Gabal course), that overrides the normal agreement rule: Это книга. (This is a book — “это” stays neuter even though “книга” is feminine, since this “это” functions as an invariant identifying word, not a true agreeing demonstrative.)

Declining этот by case follows the same accusative animate/inanimate split already seen for adjectives and nouns (Part 2, Lesson 3): Я вижу этот стол. (inanimate, unchanged) versus Я вижу этого студента. (animate, changes to “этого”).

Practice Questions