Breakdown of Сегодня я рад, потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
Questions & Answers about Сегодня я рад, потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
In Russian, the verb "to be" in the present tense is usually omitted in statements.
- English: I am happy today.
- Literal Russian structure: I (am) happy today. → Я рад сегодня.
The verb быть (“to be”) exists, and its present form есть is understood but almost never said in simple present-tense sentences like this. You would include it only in special emphatic or contrastive contexts, or in some set phrases.
So:
- Я рад. = I am happy. (normal)
- Я есть рад. – sounds strange/overly emphatic or archaic in modern everyday speech.
Рад / рада / рады all mean “glad, happy (about something)”, but they must agree with the gender and number of the subject:
- Я рад – I am glad (said by a man or boy)
- Я рада – I am glad (said by a woman or girl)
- Мы рады – We are glad
In your sentence, я рад assumes the speaker is male. If a woman is speaking, it must be:
Сегодня я рада, потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
All three describe positive feelings, but with nuance:
- рад – glad, pleased about a specific event or situation.
- Я рад, что у меня свободный вечер. – I’m glad that I have a free evening.
- счастлив – happy in a deeper or more general sense, often stronger or more long-term.
- Я сегодня очень счастлив. – I’m very happy today. (Maybe something big happened.)
- доволен – satisfied, content with how something turned out.
- Я доволен результатом. – I’m satisfied with the result.
In this sentence, рад fits best because the feeling is tied to this particular fact: having a free evening today. Счастлив would sound a bit too strong or grand for such a small everyday reason, though it’s not grammatically wrong.
Рад is a short-form adjective, which is very common in Russian for states/temporary conditions:
- я рад / я рада – I’m glad
- я готов / я готова – I’m ready
- я должен / я должна – I must / I have to
These short forms usually appear after the subject as a kind of predicate: “I am X”.
The full-form adjectives (радостный, счастливый) are more like descriptive qualities:
- радостный человек – a joyful person (as a general trait)
- счастливый день – a happy day
You can say:
- Сегодня я счастливый, потому что…
but it sounds more like “Today I’m (in general) a happy person because…”, a bit heavier and more descriptive.
Я рад is the natural, concise way to say “I’m glad” here.
Literally, у меня means “at me” or “by me”.
Russian uses a special construction to express possession:
у + [person in genitive case] + [noun]
= “[person] has [noun]”
So:
- у меня – at me → I have
- у тебя – at you → you have (informal)
- у него – at him → he has
- у нас – at us → we have
In your sentence:
> у меня свободный вечер
> literally: “At me (there is) a free evening”
> natural English: I have a free evening.
The full underlying structure is:
У меня (есть) свободный вечер.
The verb есть (“there is / there exists”) is usually omitted in colloquial Russian when stating simple possession or existence in the present.
You normally include есть if you want to:
- emphasize existence/contrast, or
- answer a yes/no question clearly.
For example:
- У тебя есть свободный вечер? – Do you have a free evening?
- Да, у меня есть свободный вечер. – Yes, I do have a free evening.
But in a neutral statement like your sentence, leaving it out is natural:
…потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
Both orders are possible; the difference is nuance/emphasis.
у меня наконец свободный вечер
- Fairly neutral: I finally have a free evening.
- Slight emphasis on свободный вечер as the new or important piece of information.
наконец у меня свободный вечер
- Stronger focus on наконец (“finally”): At last, I have a free evening!
- Feels a bit more expressive or emotional.
Russian allows relatively flexible word order to shift the focus:
- moving наконец earlier often makes the “finally!” feeling more prominent.
- placing it right before свободный вечер makes “the free evening” feel like the long-awaited thing.
All of these are grammatically fine:
- У меня наконец свободный вечер.
- У меня свободный вечер, наконец. (a bit more “at long last, a free evening, finally.”)
- Наконец у меня свободный вечер. (emotional “Finally, I have a free evening!”)
Наконец means “finally / at last”, and it’s quite mobile. Common positions:
Сегодня я рад, потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
– Neutral; “finally” modifies the whole phrase “I have a free evening”.Сегодня я рад, потому что наконец у меня свободный вечер.
– Puts a bit more emphasis on the moment of finally having it, with a slight pause after потому что in speech.Сегодня я рад, потому что у меня свободный вечер, наконец.
– Sounds more emotional or expressive, like you’ve been waiting forever.
Meaning stays essentially the same (“I finally have a free evening”), but word order lets you fine‑tune what feels emphasized: the fact that it’s free, the time (“at last now”), or the emotional relief.
Свободный вечер is in the nominative case, masculine singular:
- свободный – nominative masculine singular adjective
- вечер – nominative masculine singular noun
In the “u + genitive + (есть) + nominative” pattern:
- the person (possessor) is in the genitive: у меня
- the thing possessed is in the nominative: свободный вечер
So we get:
> у меня (есть) свободный вечер
> “I have a free evening.”
Свободного вечера would be genitive; you’d use that form in other structures, for example:
- Нет свободного вечера. – There is no free evening.
Russian has no articles (no “a/an” and no “the”).
The idea that English shows with a/an/the is usually expressed in Russian by:
- word order
- context
- stress and intonation
- adding pronouns or other words when necessary
So:
- у меня свободный вечер can mean:
- I have a free evening (one free evening) – normal reading in this context.
- I have the free evening – if context made one specific evening clear.
Russian speakers don’t feel anything is “missing” here; свободный вечер by itself is enough, and context does the rest.
Both Сегодня я рад and Я рад сегодня are correct. The difference is subtle:
Сегодня я рад…
– Slight emphasis on “today” as the time frame: Today I am glad… (maybe not always, but today yes).Я рад сегодня…
– Slightly more neutral; in many contexts it will sound almost the same.
Russian allows adverbs like сегодня to move around. Some common options:
- Сегодня я рад…
- Я сегодня рад…
- Я рад сегодня…
In most everyday speech, all three are fine; any difference is mainly in rhythm and small nuances of emphasis, not in basic grammar.
Потому что is the standard way to say “because”.
Literally, it comes from по тому, что (“by that fact that”), but in modern Russian it’s just one unit: потому что = “because”.
Так как also means “because / since”, but it often sounds a bit more formal or bookish, and is more common at the beginning of a sentence:
- Так как у меня наконец свободный вечер, я рад. – Since I finally have a free evening, I’m happy.
Из‑за того что means “because of the fact that”, but it usually introduces negative reasons or causes of problems:
- Я расстроен из‑за того, что у меня нет свободного вечера.
– I’m upset because I don’t have a free evening.
- Я расстроен из‑за того, что у меня нет свободного вечера.
In your positive, neutral sentence, потому что is the best and most natural choice:
Сегодня я рад, потому что у меня наконец свободный вечер.
Yes, but the meaning changes:
свободный вечер – one specific evening is free (today’s evening in your sentence).
- у меня свободный вечер – I have a free evening (tonight).
свободные вечера (plural) – free evenings in general.
- У меня свободные вечера. – I have free evenings (on a regular basis).
вечерами – an adverbial form meaning “in the evenings” / “at night, generally”.
- Я свободен вечерами. – I’m free in the evenings (regularly).
In your sentence, we are talking about this one evening being finally free, so свободный вечер (singular) is the correct and natural choice.