Thread: Чьи это что-либо?

Привет всем,

Я учился слову - чей - значит "whose" по-английски. Есть только одни вещь, что я не понял, то есть в этой фразой...

Чьи это что-либо?

Например:
Чьи это кошки? - Whose cats are these?
Чья это чай - Whose tea is this?

Ну мой вопрос - почему говорят "это" с множественным числами, а не "эти"?

Я думаю, что ответ на твой вопрос может заключаться в том, что "это" не местоимение само по себе, а часть составного сказуемого, в котором опущена глагольная часть "есть". То есть на самом деле когда-то было "это есть мои кошки", возможно глагол менялся в зависимости от числа существительного, но выпал. Например в чешском языке, который на мой взгляд ближе к оригинальному прародителю, это выглядит так:

Tohle je má kočka.
Tohle je můj kocour.
Tohle jsou moje kočky.
Tohle jsou moji kocouři

"Это" , как видишь, остается неизменяемым, а глагольная часть "быть" меняется.

Чья это чай - Whose tea is this?

Wrong. "Чей это чай?" is ok.

Also, you can ask same questions as in english:
"Чьи эти кошки?"
"Чей этот чай?"
These are ok too.

P.S.

Also, we can see this in other examples:
"Это была злая старуха"
vs
"Эта старуха была злая" - "This old woman was angy".

It is the same thing. "Это" and "эта" are related to different words.
I am not sure about exact rule...

Originally Posted by Alex80

P.S.

Also, we can see this in other examples:
"Это была злая старуха"
vs
"Эта старуха была злая" - "This old woman was angy".

It is the same thing. "Это" and "эта" are related to different words.
I am not sure about exact rule...

As Hoax mentioned in case of unchanged это it's actually a subject therefore it doesn't change and stand in nominative. When это changes it setrves a function of a pointer and relates to a word it describes, just like any adjective does.

Examine this:

It's them! Them is plural but "it is" structure is not.

Same thin happens with это in Russian.

Originally Posted by iCake

It's them!

I tried to translate "Это была злая старуха" in such manner, but failed.
"It was angry old woman" sounds bad for me. Also google cannot find "it was good man" in this manner.

Originally Posted by Alex80

I tried to translate "Это была злая старуха" in such manner, but failed.
"It was angry old woman" sounds bad for me. Also google cannot find "it was good man" in this manner.

That's because we usually don't refer to people as "it" in English. We'd say "She was an angry old woman" and "He was a good man."

Спасибо за объяснения, друзья))

Originally Posted by alexei90

That's because we usually don't refer to people as "it" in English. We'd say "She was an angry old woman" and "He was a good man."

It is true for russians too.
I start to think that ""Это была злая старуха" is translated to english as "There was angry woman, which we are talking about". ))

"It was an angry old woman" would be a perfectly correct English construction in answer to a question such as "Who was knocking at the door?" or "Who called on the phone?" or "Who threw a tomato at the politician?"

-- "It was an angry old woman."
-- "It was two teenage boys."

In the second example, notice that singular "it was" is used with the plural noun "boys" in the predicate. This is true even in a more complex sentence such as:

-- "It was two teenage boys who were throwing tomatoes."

The subject of the main clause is "it," (singular), but in the relative clause, the verb is plural ("were throwing"), to agree with "boys."

Compare this with:

[knock at door]
"Who's there?"
"It's me!"
or
"It's your neighbors, John and Mary!"

Originally Posted by Alex80

"Это была злая старуха"

Это is not a subject here, in fact.

Это can function either as a demonstrative pronoun or as a demonstrative particle in Russian. When used as a particle it is uninflected.

"Это была злая старуха"
Here "это" is a particle and it refers to the entire sentence, not to старуха.
It is grammatically similar to "Там была злая старуха", except that там is an adverb, not a particle.

By the way, the same particle we can see in sencences like "Москва — это столица России". This misterious это commonly remains unexplained in textbooks. It can be neither a determiner nor a pronoun in the grammatical structure of the sentence, so it clearly a particle.