Эта игра интересная и весёлая.

This game is interesting and fun.

Breakdown of Эта игра интересная и весёлая.

• интересный: interesting
• и: and
• эта: this
• весёлый: fun
• игра: the game

Questions & Answers about Эта игра интересная и весёлая.

Why is it эта and not это or этот?

In Russian, the word for this has to agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• игра (game) is:
  • feminine
  • singular
  • in the nominative case (subject of the sentence)

So you must use the feminine nominative singular form of this:

• этот – masculine (for words like стол – table)
• эта – feminine (for words like игра – game)
• это – neuter (for words like окно – window)

Because игра is feminine, you say эта игра, not это игра or этот игра.

Why do the adjectives end in -ая (интересная, весёлая) instead of -ый or -ий?

Russian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

• игра is feminine, singular, nominative.
• So the adjectives must also be feminine, singular, nominative.

Typical endings for adjectives:

• Masculine nominative singular: -ый, -ий
  • интересный фильм – an interesting movie
• Feminine nominative singular: -ая, -яя
  • интересная игра – an interesting game

So we get:

• интересный → интересная (for a feminine noun)
• весёлый → весёлая (for a feminine noun)

That’s why it’s интересная and весёлая, not интересный or весёлый in this sentence.

Why is there no word for is in the Russian sentence?

In Russian, in the present tense, the verb to be (быть) is normally omitted in simple sentences like this.

• English: This game is interesting and fun.
• Literal Russian structure: This game interesting and fun.
  (Эта игра интересная и весёлая.)

You would only see a form of быть in:

• past: Эта игра была интересной и весёлой. – This game was interesting and fun.
• future: Эта игра будет интересной и весёлой. – This game will be interesting and fun.
• or in certain special emphatic or formal constructions.

So in the present tense, the “is” is just understood, not spoken.

Are интересная and весёлая describing the game as attributes (like this interesting and fun game) or as a state (this game is interesting and fun)?

In this word order, they are used as predicative adjectives — they describe the state of the game, like in:

• This game is interesting and fun.

The structure is:

• Эта игра – this game (subject)
• интересная и весёлая – is interesting and fun (predicate adjectives)

If you wanted them as attributes (part of the noun phrase), you would normally put them before the noun:

• Эта интересная и весёлая игра. – This interesting and fun game.

So:

• Эта игра интересная и весёлая. → This game is interesting and fun.
• Эта интересная и весёлая игра. → This interesting and fun game.

Could you say Эта игра интересна и весела instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Эта игра интересна и весела.

Here интересна and весела are short-form adjectives. They also act as predicates (like “is interesting / is fun”), but:

• Short forms are a bit more formal, bookish, or stylistic.
• They can sound slightly more like evaluation of a quality than a neutral description.

Nuance (very subtle):

• Эта игра интересная и весёлая. – neutral description, everyday speech.
• Эта игра интересна и весела. – sounds more like a concise statement of qualities; more literary or stylistic.

In everyday spoken Russian, the long forms (интересная, весёлая) are more common in this kind of sentence.

Why is there no comma before и in интересная и весёлая?

In Russian, when two adjectives are simply joined by и (and) and they play the same grammatical role (both describe the same noun or both are predicate adjectives), you don’t put a comma:

• интересная и весёлая игра
• игра интересная и весёлая

A comma would appear if the structure were more complex, for example:

• A longer list: игра интересная, весёлая и динамичная.
• Or separate clauses: Игра интересная, и она очень весёлая.

But in интересная и весёлая, they are just two coordinated adjectives, so no comma.

How do you pronounce весёлая and what is the role of the letter ё?

весёлая is pronounced approximately as:

• ve-SYO-la-ya (with stress on сё)

Details:

• в – like English v
• е – like ye in yes
• сё – сё is stressed; ё sounds like yo in yoga
• ла – la
• я – ya

About ё:

• ё is always stressed and pronounced yo.
• In many printed texts, Russian often writes е instead of ё, expecting native speakers to know when it should be pronounced yo.
• Correct spelling here is весёлый / весёлая, but you may sometimes see веселый / веселая without the dots, still pronounced ве–сё–лый.

For learners, it’s useful to always treat ё as “yo” and remember that it’s stressed.

Why are the adjectives in the nominative case here?

The structure of the sentence is:

• Эта игра – subject, nominative case.
• интересная и весёлая – predicate adjectives, and in Russian they typically also appear in the nominative case when they describe the subject in a simple “X is Y” type sentence in the present tense.

So:

• Subject: nominative (игра)
• Predicate adjectives describing the subject: nominative feminine singular (интересная, весёлая)

If the sentence were in the past or future with быть, you could see a different case after была/будет (often instrumental), but in simple present-tense copula-less sentences, nominative is standard:

• Эта игра была интересной и весёлой. (instrumental: интересной, весёлой)

Can you reverse the order and say Эта игра весёлая и интересная? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

• Эта игра весёлая и интересная.

The basic meaning is the same: The game is fun and interesting.

Nuance:

• The first adjective may be felt as slightly more emphasized simply because it comes first.
• So:
  • интересная и весёлая – perhaps a tiny emphasis on its being interesting first, then fun.
  • весёлая и интересная – a tiny emphasis on its being fun first, then interesting.

In most everyday contexts, there’s no real difference, and both orders are natural.

Could you drop эта and just say Игра интересная и весёлая? What would that mean?

Yes, you can say:

• Игра интересная и весёлая.

This would mean “The game is interesting and fun” or “A game is interesting and fun”, depending on context, because Russian doesn’t have articles (a/the).

• With Эта игра… you are clearly talking about this specific game, pointing to it or referring to one you both know.
• With just Игра интересная и весёлая, you:
  • might be talking about “the game” already known from context, or
  • could be making a more general statement.

So эта makes the reference definitely specific and demonstrative (this game).

What part of speech is эта, and is it considered a pronoun or a determiner in Russian grammar?

эта is usually classified in Russian school grammar as a demonstrative pronoun (указательное местоимение).

However, in modern linguistic terms, it often functions like what English speakers call a determiner (a word that comes before a noun and points to it: this, that, these, those).

In the phrase эта игра:

• эта – demonstrative pronoun functioning as a determiner: this
• игра – noun: game

So, grammatically in Russian school tradition: demonstrative pronoun, agreeing with the noun in gender, number, and case.