Thread: Чьи это что-либо?

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". ))

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.