Russian words can be feminine, masculine or neuter. When you talk about something, anything, like a table, you have to use the proper pronoun he - on, she - ona, or neither he or she - ono. Ono isn't the same as English 'it'. Ono is something that for some reason doesn't have a gender.
If you use a word 'this' instead of a noun, then the word 'this' acquires that noun's gender. For example: stol - a table is a masculine word, this table - etot stol. Ruchka - a pen - feminine, eta ruchka. The concept "it" can be used only with something you don't know what it is. You can use the word 'eto' for any gender, because, logically, if you don't know what something is, you wouldn't know its gender. (Except in a case of an unknown animal that is obviously a male, but you're highly unlikely to find yourself in that situation.)
For example:
Shto eto? (What is it?) Eto stol. Eto ruchka.
But you can't replace a noun with just eto, unless you have no clue as to what it is.
For example:
Stol stoit ( A table stands). On stoit ( he stands ).
If you had no idea what it was standing, you can say: Eto stoit (it stands). Chto eto stoit (What is it standing?)
So you can ask about anything: Shto eto? and use the word eto as long as you don't know what the thing is, or if you'd forgotten what it is, or if you mean for it to be used in a derogatory manner.
If you use a word 'this' instead of a noun, then the word 'this' acquires that noun's gender. For example: stol - a table is a masculine word, this table - etot stol. Ruchka - a pen - feminine, eta ruchka. The concept "it" can be used only with something you don't know what it is. You can use the word 'eto' for any gender, because, logically, if you don't know what something is, you wouldn't know its gender. (Except in a case of an unknown animal that is obviously a male, but you're highly unlikely to find yourself in that situation.)
For example:
Shto eto? (What is it?) Eto stol. Eto ruchka.
But you can't replace a noun with just eto, unless you have no clue as to what it is.
For example:
Stol stoit ( A table stands). On stoit ( he stands ).
If you had no idea what it was standing, you can say: Eto stoit (it stands). Chto eto stoit (What is it standing?)
So you can ask about anything: Shto eto? and use the word eto as long as you don't know what the thing is, or if you'd forgotten what it is, or if you mean for it to be used in a derogatory manner.
Most feminine words end on an "a":
ruchka - a pen, chashka - a cup, lozhka - a spoon.
Most masculine words end on a consonant:
stol - table, stul - chair, chainik - teapot, komputer - computer.
There is a very strange exception to this rule: muzhchina - a man, it is a masculine word, but ends on an "a". Perhaps whoever invented this word was making a subtle joke. It must have been a woman who invented it.
There are very few neuter words, the most common are:
okno - a window, kino - a movie or a movie theater, zdanie - a building, veslo - a paddle, oko - an old-fashioned word for an eye. The neuter words usually end on an "o".
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