Что это за звук? - Russian example sentence

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{{vm.sentence.expandLabel}} Fewer translations

tommy_san October 11, 2014 October 11, 2014 at 9:43:38 AM UTC

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Can I add an alternate translation "この音何？", or would you prefer to translate this using "этот звук"?

And what's this "за"? Is the "звук" after it in the accusative?

sharptoothed October 11, 2014, edited October 11, 2014 October 11, 2014 at 10:12:29 AM UTC, edited October 11, 2014 at 10:20:24 AM UTC

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I think, "この音何？" will match, too. We can use "Что это за звук?" both in case when we don't know where the sound comes/came from and in case we know this regardless what kind of sound it is/was. But we can't just replace это with этот unless we change wording. For example, "Ты слышишь этот звук? Что это?"
Actually, this is not "за" but "что (это) за" - a compound particle used as a WH-word when we ask about different characteristics of a thing or person. "Звук" is in nominative here.

What was that noise ~ Что это был за шум?
What kind of tree is that? ~ Что это за дерево?
What is he like? / What kind of man is he? ~ Что он за человек?