Learn Hardcore Russian: На празднике мы смотрели весёлый танец, и смех не прекращался. - At the celebration we watched a cheerful dance, and the laughter did not stop.

So на празднике = at the celebration / party.
В празднике is rare and would sound like inside the holiday; it usually appears only in special contexts (e.g., to participate in a celebration: участвовать в празднике).

General rule of thumb: for being present at an organized event or activity, Russian usually uses на + Prepositional.

What case is празднике in, and why does it end with -е?

Празднике is in the prepositional case, singular.

The noun праздник (holiday, celebration) is a masculine noun ending in a consonant. Its prepositional singular form is:

праздник → о празднике, на празднике

Typical masculine pattern:

город → в городе (in the city)
урок → на уроке (in/at the lesson)
праздник → на празднике (at the celebration)

So -е here is the standard prepositional ending for most masculine nouns in the singular.

What is the difference between праздник and вечеринка?

Both can be translated as party, but they’re used differently:

праздник – a holiday / celebration, often more general or official:
- New Year’s, Christmas, a school celebration, a village festival.
- Can refer to the holiday itself (e.g., New Year’s Day) or an event to celebrate it.
вечеринка – a party in the narrower, informal sense:
- A house party with friends, a birthday party, a student party, etc.

In the sentence, на празднике suggests some kind of holiday celebration, festival, or official event, not just a casual get‑together at someone’s apartment.

What does мы смотрели actually mean: we watched or we were watching? And why not посмотрели?

Смотрели is past tense, imperfective aspect of смотреть (to watch, to look).

Imperfective in the past can correspond to:

we were watching (focus on the process/duration)
we watched (neutral past, without highlighting completion)

Посмотрели is perfective (to watch and finish watching). It would emphasize the result, like we (successfully) watched it, finished watching it.

In context:

мы смотрели весёлый танец – emphasizes the activity going on; at the celebration, we were there watching this dance.
мы посмотрели весёлый танец – could sound more like we watched it (to the end) and that’s done.

The original sentence wants to paint a picture of what was happening at the event, so смотрели (imperfective) is more natural.

Why is it весёлый танец, not смешной танец? Aren’t both “funny”?

Both can be related to fun or funny, but they have different nuances:

весёлый – cheerful, lively, merry, bringing joy and fun:
- весёлая музыка – cheerful music
- весёлый праздник – a fun, lively celebration
- весёлый человек – a cheerful person, in a good mood
смешной – funny, causing laughter:
- смешной анекдот – a funny joke
- смешной костюм – a funny/silly costume

Весёлый танец suggests a joyful, lively, upbeat dance.
Смешной танец would focus on it looking comical or even silly (making people laugh).

The sentence talks about laughter, so смешной might also work in some contexts, but весёлый sounds more neutral and positive: a happy, lively dance everyone enjoyed.

What case is весёлый танец in, and how do I know what endings to use?

Весёлый танец is in the accusative case, singular, functioning as the direct object of смотрели (we watched).

Verb: смотрели (что?) – watched what? → весёлый танец

The noun танец (dance) is masculine, ending in a consonant. For masculine inanimate nouns:

Nominative = Accusative:
- танец (Nom.) → танец (Acc.)

The adjective весёлый agrees with танец in:

gender: masculine
number: singular
case: accusative (same form as nominative for masculine inanimate)

So you get:

Nominative: весёлый танец
Accusative (inanimate): весёлый танец

Same form, but the function in the sentence (object of смотрели) tells you it’s accusative.

Why is there a comma before и in ..., и смех не прекращался?

In Russian, you usually put a comma before и when it connects two independent clauses (each with its own subject and verb).

Here we have:

На празднике мы смотрели весёлый танец
- Subject: мы
- Verb: смотрели
смех не прекращался
- Subject: смех
- Verb: не прекращался

Because both parts could be separate sentences, Russian punctuation requires a comma:

На празднике мы смотрели весёлый танец, и смех не прекращался.

If и connects just two words or phrases that are not full clauses, there’s usually no comma (e.g., весёлый и интересный танец).

Why does the sentence say смех не прекращался instead of something like мы не прекращали смеяться?

Both are possible, but they feel different:

смех не прекращался – laughter did not stop (literally: the laughter wasn’t ceasing).
- Focuses on laughter as a continuous background.
- More compact and idiomatic.
мы не прекращали смеяться – we didn’t stop laughing.
- Focuses on what we were doing (our action of laughing).
- Slightly heavier, and emphasizes the people more than the general atmosphere.

The original sentence describes the overall mood during the event. Saying смех не прекращался makes it sound like laughter was everywhere, all the time, not just tied to a specific group.

What exactly is прекращался grammatically? Why the -ся at the end?

Прекращался is:

verb: прекращаться – to stop, to come to an end
aspect: imperfective
tense: past
person/number: 3rd person singular, masculine (agrees with смех)

The -ся ending shows it’s a reflexive / middle-voice verb.
Compare:

прекращать что-то – to stop something (transitive)
- Они прекратили музыку. – They stopped the music.
что-то прекращается – something stops (by itself, or it comes to an end)
- Музыка прекратилась. – The music stopped.
- Смех не прекращался. – The laughter didn’t stop (kept going).

So смех не прекращался = laughter did not cease, did not come to an end.

Why is смех the subject here? In English I’d say “we didn’t stop laughing”.

Russian often turns abstract things into subjects:

Смех не прекращался. – Laughter did not stop.
Дождь не прекращался. – The rain didn’t stop.
Разговор не прекращался. – The conversation didn’t stop.

This is completely natural in Russian and stylistically smooth.

You can say мы не переставали смеяться (we didn’t stop laughing), but using смех as the subject highlights the overall atmosphere rather than specific people’s actions.

Could we say смех не прекратился instead of не прекращался? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:

смех не прекращался – imperfective, focusing on duration / process:
- Laughter kept going; it was continuous; it never stopped during that time.
смех не прекратился – perfective, focusing on the fact that it never came to a final stop:
- Implies that up to some endpoint, the expected final stopping point never occurred.

In this sentence, не прекращался (imperfective) sounds more natural because we’re painting an ongoing, lively picture of the celebration. It matches мы смотрели (also imperfective, describing what was happening).

Can I change the word order to Мы на празднике смотрели весёлый танец...? Does it sound different?

Yes, you can say:

Мы на празднике смотрели весёлый танец, и смех не прекращался.

Both versions are grammatically correct:

На празднике мы смотрели весёлый танец...
- Slight emphasis on на празднике (what happened at the celebration was that we watched a dance).
Мы на празднике смотрели весёлый танец...
- Slightly more emphasis on мы (what we were doing at the celebration).

The difference is subtle; both sound natural. Russian allows fairly flexible word order for nuance and emphasis.

How should I pronounce these words? Where are the stresses?

Stresses (capital letters show the stressed syllable):

На прАзднике – прАз-дни-ке
мы – [my]
смотрЕли – сматрЕ-ли
весЁлый – ве-СЁ-лый
тАнец – ТА-нец
и – [i]
смЕх – СМЕХ
не – [nye]
прекращАлся – прe-кращАл-ся

A rough phonetic guide (Latin letters):

На празднике – na PRÁZ-dni-kye
смотрели – smat-RÉ-lee
весёлый – vye-SYÓ-lyy
танец – TÁ-nyets
смех – smyehkh
прекращался – pre-kra-SHÁL-sya