Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне совсем не скучно дома.

The feeling/state (скучно, холодно, жарко, страшно, грустно, весело, etc.) is what “exists”.
The person is marked in the dative case: мне, тебе, ему, ей, нам, вам, им.

So мне is dative, meaning “to me”, and it is the normal way to say “I am … (bored, cold, sad, etc.)” in Russian with these words. Using я here (Я скучно дома) would be incorrect.

What exactly is скучно here – an adjective, an adverb, something else?

In this sentence, скучно is a short-form predicative adjective used in an impersonal way.

Functionally, for a learner, you can think of скучно here as “it is boring / I am bored”:

Мне скучно. – I am bored.
Здесь скучно. – It’s boring here.

It does not change for gender or number in this construction:

Мне скучно. – said by a man or a woman.
Нам скучно. – We are bored.

So, even though grammatically it’s related to the adjective скучный (boring), in practice you just memorize скучно as the predicative form used in expressions like мне скучно.

Why is it совсем не скучно and not just не скучно? What does совсем add?

Не скучно means “not bored / not boring” in a neutral way:

Мне не скучно. – I’m not bored.

Совсем не скучно strongly emphasizes the negation and means “not at all boring / I’m not bored at all”:

Мне совсем не скучно дома. – I’m not bored at home at all.

Rough comparison:

Мне не скучно. – I’m not bored. (simple statement)
Мне совсем не скучно. – I’m really not bored, not in the slightest.

So совсем here intensifies the negation.

Is совсем не скучно some kind of “double negative”? Russian likes double negatives, right?

Not in this case.

Russian does use real double negatives with words like:

не … никогда, никто, нигде, ничего, etc.
- Я никогда не скучаю дома. – I never get bored at home.

But in совсем не скучно, the word совсем is not negative by itself. It’s an intensifier meaning roughly “completely / totally / absolutely”.

So:

совсем не скучно ≈ completely not boring → not boring at all.

Grammatically it’s just one negation (не), plus an intensifier (совсем), not a true double negative of the “I don’t never…” type.

What is the role of дома? Why not в доме?

Both дома and в доме are related to “at home / in the house”, but they are not identical:

дома (до́ма – stress on the first syllable) usually means “at home” as an adverb:
- Мне дома совсем не скучно. – I’m not bored at home at all.
в доме literally means “in the house / inside the building”, focusing more on the physical location inside the structure:
- Мне в доме совсем не скучно. – sounds more like “I’m not bored in the house (as opposed to outside, in the yard, etc.)”.

In everyday speech about being at home, the natural choice is дома. It answers the question где? (where?) in the sense of “at home”, not just physically “inside the house”.

What case is дома? It looks like a genitive plural, but here it means “at home”.

Formally, дома can look like genitive plural of дом, but in Мне совсем не скучно дома it is actually an adverbial form meaning “at home”.

You can treat this дома as a fixed adverb, not as a normal case form you decline:

он дома – he is at home
я буду дома – I’ll be at home
нам хорошо дома – we feel good at home

So for practical purposes, just remember:

дом – house (noun)
дома – at home (adverb) in sentences like this

Can I change the word order? For example, can I say Дома мне совсем не скучно or Мне дома совсем не скучно?

Yes, Russian word order is quite flexible, and all of these are possible:

Мне совсем не скучно дома.
Мне дома совсем не скучно.
Дома мне совсем не скучно.

They all basically mean the same: I’m not bored at home at all.

Very roughly:

Putting дома earlier (Дома мне…) can highlight “at home” a bit more, for example contrasting with being somewhere else.
Putting совсем не скучно as a block at the end often puts the stress on “not bored at all”.

For a learner, your original order Мне совсем не скучно дома is perfectly natural and good.

Could I just say Мне не скучно дома? How different is that from Мне совсем не скучно дома?

Yes, you can say:

Мне не скучно дома. – I’m not bored at home.

The difference is only in strength of negation:

Мне не скучно дома. – neutral: I’m not bored (maybe I’m fine, maybe I’m busy, but not bored).
Мне совсем не скучно дома. – strong: I’m really not bored at home, not at all.

If you’re just giving basic information, Мне не скучно дома is enough. If you want to emphasize that there is absolutely no boredom, use совсем.

What is the stress and pronunciation of скучно and дома here?

скучно: stress on the first syllable → ску́чно
Pronounced approximately: SKOOCH-nuh (with a “ch” like in church).
дома meaning “at home”: stress also on the first syllable → до́ма
Pronounced approximately: DOH-muh.

Be careful: домá (stress on the second syllable) is something different – that is the plural nominative (houses). Here you need the adverb до́ма = at home.

Is there any difference between Мне скучно дома and Я скучаю дома?

Yes, there is an important difference in meaning and usage.

Мне скучно дома.
- Literally: To me it is boring at home.
- Natural translation: I am bored at home.
Я скучаю дома.
- Literally: I am bored / I miss (someone) at home.
- But скучать is most often used with по + dative to mean “to miss (someone/something)”:
  - Я скучаю по тебе. – I miss you.
- Я скучаю дома without по is unusual and can sound incomplete or unclear. Native speakers expect по кому/чему after скучать, or a context like “I get bored when I’m at home” – but this is better said with мне скучно дома.

So, to say I’m bored at home, the natural phrase is Мне скучно дома (or Мне совсем не скучно дома for I’m not bored at all at home). Use я скучаю по… when you mean “I miss someone/something”.

Why doesn’t скучно change for gender or number, like скучный / скучная / скучные?

In Мне совсем не скучно дома, скучно is a predicative form used in an impersonal sentence. In this role it:

does not agree with a noun in gender/number,
stays the same no matter who is speaking:
- Мне скучно. – I (male or female) am bored.
- Тебе скучно? – Are you bored?
- Им скучно. – They are bored.

By contrast, скучный / скучная / скучное / скучные are full adjectives that describe nouns:

скучный фильм – a boring movie (masc.)
скучная книга – a boring book (fem.)
скучные уроки – boring lessons (pl.)

So you use скучно to say someone feels bored / it is boring, and скучный / скучная / … to describe a thing as boring.

Can I say this without мне, like Совсем не скучно дома?

Yes, you can drop мне:

Совсем не скучно дома. – It’s not boring at home at all.

This sounds a bit more general or impersonal, like talking about the situation itself:

As a general statement: Being at home is not boring at all.
Or as a casual comment in context: (Here) at home it’s not boring at all.

With мне you clearly tie the feeling to yourself:

Мне совсем не скучно дома. – I’m not bored at home at all.