Questions & Answers about Сегодня в комнате душно.
Russian often omits the present‑tense form of быть (“to be”) in simple sentences like this.
- English: Today it is stuffy in the room.
- Russian literally: Today in (the) room stuffy. → Сегодня в комнате душно.
So the “is” is simply understood. This is completely normal and very common in Russian:
- Он дома. – “He is at home.” (no есть)
- Здесь холодно. – “It is cold here.”
If you add есть here (Сегодня в комнате есть душно), it sounds wrong and ungrammatical.
Russian often uses impersonal sentences for weather, temperature, and general conditions. There is no grammatical subject like English “it.”
Сегодня в комнате душно. is literally something like “Today, in the room, [it is] stuffy,” but Russian does not insert any pronoun.
Similarly:
- На улице холодно. – “It’s cold outside.” (no оно)
- Здесь темно. – “It’s dark here.”
Using оно here (Сегодня оно душно…) is incorrect; Russians simply do not use a pronoun in this structure.
In school grammar, душно is usually treated as a short form neuter adjective used in an impersonal way. In practice, you can think of it as a special “state word” that works like “stuffy” / “it is stuffy.”
Key points:
It does not change for gender, number, or case:
- Здесь душно. – “It’s stuffy here.”
- В комнате душно. – “It’s stuffy in the room.”
- Было душно. – “It was stuffy.”
It typically appears in sentences without a personal subject (no “I, you, it” etc.).
So: functionally it behaves like a predicative adverb (“stuffy here”), but grammatically it’s a special kind of short-form adjective used in impersonal constructions.
They are related but used differently.
душно – “it is stuffy” (a state / condition)
- В комнате душно. – “It’s stuffy in the room.”
- Focus on how it feels there, right now.
душный / душная / душное / душные – ordinary adjectives meaning “stuffy” as a permanent or typical quality of something.
- душная комната – “a stuffy room”
- душный офис – “a stuffy office”
Compare:
В этой комнате часто душно.
“It is often stuffy in this room.” (state, often happening)Это душная комната.
“This is a stuffy room.” (describing the room itself)
Комната is a feminine noun (“room”). In в комнате, it’s in the prepositional case, which often answers “where?” and is used with в (“in”) for location.
Declension of комната (simplified):
- Nominative (dictionary form): комната – “room”
- Prepositional (after в, “in” for location): в комнате – “in the room”
So Сегодня в комнате душно. is literally:
- Сегодня – today
- в комнате – in (the) room (prepositional case)
- душно – it is stuffy
The -е ending is the standard prepositional ending for most feminine nouns in ‑а.
Can I change the word order? For example, are these sentences also correct?
В комнате сегодня душно.
Душно сегодня в комнате.
Yes, all of these are grammatically correct, but the emphasis shifts slightly.
Сегодня в комнате душно.
Neutral, very common. Focus is on today there being stuffy in the room.В комнате сегодня душно.
Slightly more focus on the room as the place:
“In the room, today it is stuffy.” (Could contrast with “In the corridor it’s fine.”)Душно сегодня в комнате.
Stronger emphasis on душно (the stuffiness) as the main point:
“Stuffy it is today in the room.” (stylistically more expressive, less neutral.)
In everyday speech, Сегодня в комнате душно. and В комнате сегодня душно. are the most common.
Yes, you can simply say:
- В комнате душно. – “It’s stuffy in the room.”
Use сегодня when you want to contrast today with other times (yesterday, usually, etc.), or if the time frame is important:
- Вчера было прохладно, а сегодня в комнате душно.
“Yesterday it was cool, but today it’s stuffy in the room.”
If you just walk into a room and comment on how it feels right now, В комнате душно. is completely natural.
You keep душно and add forms of быть (to be) in the past or future.
Past: было душно – “it was stuffy”
- В комнате было душно. – “It was stuffy in the room.”
- Вчера здесь было душно.
Future: будет душно – “it will be stuffy”
- В комнате будет душно. – “It will be stuffy in the room.”
- Завтра здесь будет душно.
Notice that in the present you drop есть, but in the past and future you normally use было / будет.
Yes, and this is very common:
- Сегодня в комнате очень душно. – “It’s very stuffy in the room today.”
- В комнате немного душно. – “It’s a bit stuffy in the room.”
- Там стало ужасно душно. – “It became terribly stuffy there.”
So душно behaves like other predicative words (like жарко, холодно, темно) that can take adverbs of degree.
Сегодня is pronounced approximately [sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə], and the stress is on the second syllable: се‑год‑ня → сеГОдня.
Important details:
- The written г is pronounced like в: се‑вод‑ня, not “се‑год‑ня”.
- Final я is unstressed and reduced, sounding like a soft “nya”.
Stresses in the whole sentence:
- сеГОдня в КОмнате ДУШно.
Душно describes air that feels difficult to breathe because it is hot, humid, and/or poorly ventilated. It can be used:
Indoors:
- В комнате душно. – “It’s stuffy in the room.”
- В офисе сегодня душно.
Outdoors, especially in humid, windless weather:
- На улице душно. – “It’s stuffy outside.”
- Летом в городе часто душно. – “In summer it’s often stuffy in the city.”
So it’s about the quality of the air, not just about being indoors.
Yes, many Russian “state words” behave the same way, especially for temperature, light, and comfort:
- жарко – it is hot
- В комнате жарко. – “It’s hot in the room.”
- холодно – it is cold
- На улице холодно. – “It’s cold outside.”
- тепло – it is warm
- Здесь тепло. – “It’s warm here.”
- сыро – it is damp
- В подвале сыро. – “It’s damp in the basement.”
- темно – it is dark
- Здесь темно. – “It’s dark here.”
- шумно – it is noisy
- В комнате шумно. – “It’s noisy in the room.”
They all form similar impersonal sentences: [place] + [predicate like душно/жарко/шумно].