Breakdown of Сегодня вечером у нас будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
Questions & Answers about Сегодня вечером у нас будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
Russian normally says сегодня вечером to mean “this evening / tonight (today in the evening)”.
- Сегодня = today (an adverb)
- вечером = the instrumental form of вечер (evening), used adverbially to mean in the evening.
Together сегодня вечером literally feels like “today, in the evening,” which is the natural idiomatic way to say this evening / tonight.
You can say в этот вечер, but that usually refers to a specific evening previously mentioned in context (like in a story: “On that evening …”), not the upcoming evening today in ordinary speech.
сегодня вечер is simply wrong; вечер normally can’t stand bare like that for in the evening in modern Russian.
У нас будет is the standard Russian way to express possession or something “happening at our place / on our side” in the future.
- у
- genitive (у нас) literally means “by us / at our place / with us”.
- будет is “will be” (3rd person singular future of быть “to be”).
So у нас будет вебинар literally: “(there) will be a webinar at our place / with us” → naturally understood as “we will have a webinar.”
Russian almost never uses иметь (to have) the way English uses “to have.”
Мы будем иметь вебинар sounds very unnatural here, almost like legal or bureaucratic phrasing, not normal speech. Use у нас будет for “we’ll have.”
Будет is the simple future of быть (to be). In Russian:
- Он есть he is (rare in normal statements, often omitted)
- Он будет he will be
In this sentence, будет вебинар = “there will be a webinar”.
Russian often uses future here for scheduled events, especially with быть:
- Завтра будет концерт. – There will be a concert tomorrow.
- Сегодня вечером у нас будет урок. – We’ll have a lesson this evening.
Using present есть would sound odd here; scheduled events with быть are normally expressed with будет.
Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер (evening).
Russian often uses the instrumental form of time nouns in an adverbial sense to mean “at / in that time”:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime / in the afternoon
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So сегодня вечером is literally “today, in-the-evening (instrumental)”.
You could also say сегодня вечером with вечером exactly as in the sentence: that is the standard form. You do not add an extra preposition like в here.
Бесплатный means “free of charge,” “at no cost.”
It comes from без (without) + плата (payment) → бесплатный.
For “free” in the sense of freedom / liberty, Russian uses other words, e.g.:
- свободный человек – a free person (not a slave, not in prison, has freedom)
- свободная страна – a free country
In this sentence, бесплатный вебинар clearly means you don’t have to pay for the webinar.
Бесплатный is agreeing with вебинар in gender, number, and case.
- вебинар is masculine, singular, nominative.
- The matching adjective form is бесплатный (masc. nom. sg.).
Other forms would match other genders:
- бесплатная лекция – a free lecture (feminine)
- бесплатное занятие – a free class (neuter)
- бесплатные уроки – free lessons (plural)
So here бесплатный вебинар is grammatically correct because вебинар is masculine.
Вебинар is a masculine noun, borrowed from English webinar.
- Nominative singular: вебина́р
- Pronunciation: ve-bi-NAR (stress on the last syllable: -на́р).
That’s why we use masculine forms like:
- бесплатный вебинар – a free webinar
- интересный вебинар – an interesting webinar
- наш вебинар – our webinar
Русскому языку is in the dative case.
The preposition по in the meaning “on the subject of / about (a field or topic)” normally takes the dative:
- курс по математике – a course on mathematics
- лекция по истории – a lecture on history
- вебинар по русскому языку – a webinar on the Russian language
So:
- русский язык – nominative
- русскому языку – dative (masc. sing.)
The form по русский язык (accusative) is wrong here, and по русском языке mixes preposition and case incorrectly; по + prepositional is used in different meanings (like по дороге “along the road”), but “on the subject of” uses по + dative.
Both are possible, but they have slightly different typical uses and “feel”:
по русскому языку (по + dative) = on the subject of Russian (as a school subject / field of study).
- Very common in titles of courses, textbooks, lessons:
- учебник по русскому языку – a textbook of Russian
- экзамен по русскому языку – an exam in Russian
- Very common in titles of courses, textbooks, lessons:
о русском языке (о + prepositional) = about the Russian language (content-wise, we’ll talk about it).
- Emphasizes “what we’ll be talking about”, not necessarily as a formal subject:
- лекция о русском языке – a lecture about the Russian language
- Emphasizes “what we’ll be talking about”, not necessarily as a formal subject:
So:
- бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку – sounds like a learning/teaching webinar (a class on Russian).
- бесплатный вебинар о русском языке – could be a talk/presentation “about Russian” (history, features, culture of the language).
In many contexts, they overlap and both would be understood.
You can hear по русскому in informal speech, especially when the context is clear:
- У нас завтра по русскому контрольная. – “We have a test in Russian tomorrow.”
But in a standalone, neutral sentence (like an announcement):
- Сегодня вечером у нас будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
it’s better and more natural to use the full phrase по русскому языку, especially in writing or in anything slightly formal.
Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and several variants are correct. Some common ones:
- Сегодня вечером у нас будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
- Сегодня вечером у нас бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку. (often still understood as future, because of the time phrase)
- У нас сегодня вечером будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
- У нас будет сегодня вечером бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
They all are grammatically correct; the differences are in nuance and emphasis:
- Starting with сегодня вечером focuses on when.
- Starting with у нас emphasizes that we (our organization, our place) are the ones having it.
The original sentence is very natural for an announcement.
Negative version:
- Сегодня вечером у нас не будет вебинара по русскому языку.
– This evening we will not have a Russian language webinar.
Notice the change:
- Affirmative: будет вебинар (nominative: вебинар)
- Negative: не будет вебинара (genitive: вебинара)
In Russian, when you negate existence or possession with нет / не было / не будет, the “thing that doesn’t exist” usually goes into the genitive:
- У нас есть вебинар. – We have a webinar.
- У нас нет вебинара. – We don’t have a webinar.
- У нас будет вебинар. – We will have a webinar.
- У нас не будет вебинара. – We won’t have a webinar.
So in the negative, вебинар → вебинара.
Сегодня вечером is any time that Russian speakers consider evening on today’s date. It’s a bit fuzzy, but usually:
- After the typical “day” hours (after work / after classes)
- Before night
So it naturally corresponds to English “this evening” or “tonight” depending on context. If the webinar is at 7–8 PM, сегодня вечером is perfect.
Russian doesn’t strictly separate “evening” vs “night” the same way English divides evening vs night. For a webinar around 9 PM, сегодня вечером could still be used. If it’s very late, people might say поздно вечером or поздно ночью, depending on feeling.
The sentence is neutral and suitable for both spoken and written announcements:
- Сегодня вечером у нас будет бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
You might see it in:
- An email to students
- A website announcement
- A social media post from a school
A slightly more formal variant might be:
- Сегодня вечером у нас пройдёт бесплатный вебинар по русскому языку.
(пройдёт – “will take place / will be held”)
But the given version is perfectly natural and not overly casual.