Quote Originally Posted by klopp View Post
1)then why the sentence << Этот дом новый >> is correct? I don't completely get it...


2) what do you guys think about this rule I found?

"Use the indeclinable это to translate English phrases starting with 'This is', 'These are'.
Use the demonstrative pronoun этот (эта, это, эти) to translate such word combinations as 'this house ' - этот дом, 'this shirt' - эта рубашка, 'this dress' - это платье, 'these students' - эти студенты."
The rule is OK.

You can write it with a long dash which is equivalent of English "is" and represent an intonational pause in Russian:

Этот дом -- новый. = This house is new.
Это -- новый дом. = This is a new house.

If you can replace "this" with "it" or "this object" than it should be "это" only.

Этот дом -- новый. = This object house is new.
Это -- новый дом. = This object is a new house.