Learn Hardcore Russian: Ночь холодная.

In present‑tense nominal sentences, Russian normally drops the copula быть. The present tense “is” is implied, so Ночь холодная literally reads “Night [is] cold.”

Why are there no articles like “a” or “the” in Ночь холодная?

Russian doesn’t use articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context. Thus Ночь холодная can mean “The night is cold” or “A night is cold,” depending on the situation.

What case and number is ночь, and why?

Ночь is in the nominative singular because it’s the subject of the sentence. In Russian, the subject of a sentence usually appears in the nominative case.

What is the gender of ночь, and how can I tell?

Despite ending in a soft sign (ь), ночь is feminine. Many nouns ending in -ь can be either gender, so memorization or a dictionary check is often needed. Here, the feminine gender is confirmed by the adjective agreement (холодная, not холодный).

Why does холодная end with -ая?

Adjectives in Russian agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case. Холодная is the feminine singular nominative form of холодный, matching the feminine noun ночь.

Why is холодная placed after ночь instead of before?

Russian word order is flexible. While the neutral order is холодная ночь (“cold night”), placing the adjective after the noun (Ночь холодная) can add emphasis or a poetic feel.

How do I turn this into a question, “Is the night cold?”

You can simply use rising intonation: Ночь холодная?. For a more formal or literary style, you could use the particle ли: Холодная ли ночь?, though the first form is more common in speech.

How do I negate “The night is cold”?

Place не before the adjective: Ночь не холодная.

Where is the stress in холодная, and how is ночь stressed?

In холодная, the stress falls on the second syllable (хо-ЛОД-ная). Ночь has only one syllable, so it naturally carries the stress on that syllable.