Ночной город тихий и красивый.

The city at night is quiet and beautiful.

Breakdown of Ночной город тихий и красивый.

• город: the city
• красивый: beautiful
• и: and
• тихий: quiet
• ночной: night

Questions & Answers about Ночной город тихий и красивый.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

Russian normally leaves out есть (the verb to be) in the present tense when linking a subject with a noun or an adjective.

So Ночной город тихий и красивый. literally looks like:

• Ночной город – night city
• тихий и красивый – quiet and beautiful

There is an invisible is between город and тихий in the meaning, but Russian just does not say it in the present tense. You only use forms of быть (to be) explicitly in the past (был, была, было, были) and future (будет, будут), or for emphasis/contrast in the present.

What case and gender is город, and how do we know?

Город is:

• Masculine – you can usually tell from the ending -д with no vowel (typical masculine pattern), and the dictionary form of most masculine nouns ends in a consonant.
• Nominative singular – it is the subject of the sentence and has the basic dictionary form with no case ending attached. In a simple X is Y sentence, both X (subject) and Y (predicate adjective) are in the nominative case.

So Ночной город тихий и красивый. is a nominative pattern: subject город + predicate adjectives тихий, красивый, all masculine nominative singular.

Why do the adjectives end in -ой, -ий, and -ый: ночной, тихий, красивый?

All three are long-form masculine nominative singular adjectives, but Russian has three common endings for this form: -ый, -ий, -ой. The choice depends on the stem and the stress:

• Ночной

  • From the noun ночь (night) + suffix -н-
    • ending -ой.
  • The stress is on the ending: ночно́й. When the stress falls on the ending, -ой is very common (e.g. большо́й, молодо́й, ночно́й).

• Тихий

  • From the stem тих-
    • ending -ий.
  • After the consonants г, к, х, ч, щ, adjectives typically take -ий instead of -ый in this form (e.g. строгий, мужской is an exception with a different suffix, but тихий, плохой again has a different suffix). So тихий, not тихый.

• Красивый

  • From the stem красив-
    • ending -ый.
  • Here the stress is on the root: краси́вый, and -ый is the standard unstressed masculine nom. sg. ending.

For learners, it’s usually easiest to memorize each adjective with its full dictionary form (masc. nom. sg.), rather than trying to predict every ending from rules.

Why is Ночной before город, but тихий и красивый come after the noun?

Russian allows quite flexible word order, and both positions have slightly different functions here:

• Ночной город:

  • Ночной is an attributive adjective, part of the noun phrase, like English the night city / the nighttime city.
  • It directly defines what kind of city we are talking about.

• город тихий и красивый:

  • тихий и красивый are predicative adjectives. They function like is quiet and beautiful and describe a state or property of the subject.
  • Structurally: [Ночной город] – [тихий и красивый].

You could also say:

• Ночной тихий и красивый город.
• Тихий и красивый ночной город.

These versions push all three adjectives into the attributive position (everything before город), making them more like a long descriptive title: a quiet and beautiful night city. The original sentence clearly separates: which city? (night city) vs what is it like? (quiet and beautiful).

What is the difference between ночной город and город ночью?

Both can often be translated as the city at night, but the nuance is different:

• Ночной город (adjective ночной):

  • Treats night as an inherent characteristic or “mode” of the city.
  • Feels like: the nighttime city, the city in its night version.
  • Common in more descriptive or poetic language.

• город ночью (noun город

  • adverbial form ночью – at night):
  • Focuses more on when we are observing the city, a simple time adverbial.
  • Feels like: the city (when?) at night.

For example:

• Ночной город тихий и красивый. – We are talking about the nighttime city and describing its qualities.
• Город ночью тихий и красивый. – Literally: The city is quiet and beautiful at night; the time is more foregrounded. Both are acceptable, but the style/feel is slightly different.

What is the grammatical difference between ночь, ночью, and ночной?

They are different forms/parts of speech from the same root:

• ночь – noun, nominative singular: night (subject or basic dictionary form).
• ночью – originally the instrumental singular of ночь, but often used as an adverbial, meaning at night (answers “when?”).
• ночной – adjective, masculine nominative singular: night / nighttime / nocturnal as a describing word before a noun: ночной город, ночной автобус.

So in Ночной город тихий и красивый., ночной is an adjective modifying the noun город.

Why do we say тихий here and not тихо?

Because тихий is an adjective agreeing with город, while тихо is an adverb or short predicative form:

• тихий – full adjective, masculine nominative singular.

  • Matches город in gender, number, and case.
  • Structure: (The) night city (is) quiet and beautiful.

• тихо – adverb or predicative adverb:

  • Describes how something happens or the general state, without agreement with a noun.
  • Example: В городе тихо. – It is quiet in the city.

So:

• Ночной город тихий. – The night city is quiet. (adjective + noun)
• В ночном городе тихо. – It is quiet in the night city. (adverbial statement)

Can we use short-form adjectives here, like тих and красив?

Yes, but it changes the style and sounds literary or poetic:

• Ночной город тих и красив.

Here тих and красив are short-form adjectives. Compared to long forms:

• Long forms (тихий, красивый) are neutral and most common in everyday speech, both attributively and predicatively.
• Short forms (тих, красив) are mostly:
  • Predicative only (used after the noun).
  • Stylistically more formal, elevated, bookish, or poetic.
  • Often emphasize a temporary or resultant state.

In modern standard, for a neutral sentence, Ночной город тихий и красивый. sounds more natural; Ночной город тих и красив. sounds like something from literature, a poem, or very stylized speech.

Why is it тихий and красивый, not тихой, красивой, etc.?

Because the adjectives must match город in gender, number, and case:

• город – masculine, singular, nominative.
• So predicate adjectives describing it must be masculine, singular, nominative too:
  • тихий (not тихой) – masculine nominative singular.
  • красивый (not красивой) – masculine nominative singular.

Forms like тихой, красивой are typically feminine or oblique case forms (e.g., genitive, dative, instrumental), not appropriate here. Predicate adjectives after a nominative subject are also in the nominative.

Could I say Тихий и красивый ночной город. instead? What changes?

Yes, that is grammatically correct, but the structure and nuance change:

• Тихий и красивый ночной город.

  • All three adjectives are before the noun, so they are all attributive modifiers of город.
  • Feels like a noun phrase: a quiet and beautiful night city (as a single object or image).
  • Often would be used as part of a larger sentence or as a descriptive phrase, not a full statement by itself.

• Ночной город тихий и красивый.

  • Ночной is attributive (night city), and тихий и красивый form the predicate (is quiet and beautiful).
  • This is a full sentence/assertion about the city: The night city is quiet and beautiful.

So your version is more like a descriptive title; the original is a complete statement with a clear subject–predicate structure.

Why is there no comma before и красивый?

In Ночной город тихий и красивый., тихий and красивый are two predicate adjectives joined by a single и (and). In Russian, when two homogeneous parts of a sentence (like adjectives, verbs, nouns) are joined by one и, you usually do not put a comma:

• Он высокий и сильный. – He is tall and strong.
• Город тихий и красивый. – The city is quiet and beautiful.

You would see a comma if there were three or more homogeneous parts with repeated и or mixed conjunctions, or in some more complex structures, but here a comma is not used.

How do you pronounce Ночной город тихий и красивый and where is the stress?

Stress and some key pronunciation points:

• Ночной – ночно́й
  • Stress on ой.
  • The first о (но-) is unstressed and sounds like [a]: roughly [nachnÓy].
• город – го́род
  • Stress on the first о.
  • Second о in unstressed position sounds like [a]: [gÓrad].
• тихий – ти́хий
  • Stress on и.
  • хи is like [хи] with a soft х.
• и – и
  • Short [i], like ee in see.
• красивый – краси́вый
  • Stress on и.
  • Final -ый sounds close to reduced [ɨ]; you might hear something like [krasÍvɨj].

Put together (approximate): [nachnÓy gÓrad tÍhij i krasÍvɨj]. The main stressed syllables are: ночнОЙ, гОрод, тИхий, красИвый.

How would this sentence change in the plural, for night cities are quiet and beautiful?

You make both the noun and all the adjectives plural and keep everything in the nominative:

• Ночные города тихие и красивые.

Breakdown:

• Ночные – plural of ночной (masc./fem. nominative plural).
• города – plural of город (nominative plural, with the irregular pattern город → города).
• тихие – plural of тихий (masc./fem. nominative plural).
• красивые – plural of красивый (masc./fem. nominative plural).

So the agreement pattern stays the same; only the number (singular → plural) changes.