Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

Мягче is the comparative form of мягкий (soft). In Russian, many adjectives form a short comparative instead of using a separate word like more.

So:

• мягкий = soft
• мягче = softer

This is similar to English soft → softer, not more soft.

Also notice the spelling change:

• мягк- → мягч-

This kind of consonant change is common in Russian comparatives.

Чем means than in comparisons.

So the structure is:

• X мягче, чем Y = X is softer than Y

In this sentence:

• Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.
• This sofa is softer than the old armchair.

This is the most standard way to compare two things in Russian.

Because кресло is a neuter noun, and adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

So:

• старый = masculine
• старая = feminine
• старое = neuter

Since кресло is neuter, you need:

• старое кресло

This agreement is one of the most important features of Russian grammar.

Этот means this, and it must agree with the noun it describes.

Диван is masculine, so the masculine form этот is used.

Compare:

• этот диван = this sofa
• эта книга = this book
• это кресло = this armchair
• эти стулья = these chairs

So этот is simply the correct masculine singular form.

Because after чем in a simple comparison like this, Russian normally uses the noun in the nominative case:

• Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

Both диван and кресло are just naming the things being compared, so they stay in the nominative.

Learners sometimes expect a different case after than, because English does not show case here and some other Russian comparison patterns do. But with чем, the nominative is the standard choice in this kind of sentence.

Yes. Russian has another comparative pattern:

• более мягкий = more soft / softer

So you could say:

• Этот диван более мягкий, чем старое кресло.

But in everyday speech, мягче sounds more natural and simpler here.

In general:

• мягче = shorter, more common
• более мягкий = more formal, sometimes used when a short comparative is awkward or stylistically less suitable

Yes, from an English-speaking learner’s point of view, you can think of it that way.

Russian usually does not use the present-tense verb to be in sentences like this.

English:

• This sofa is softer than the old armchair.

Russian:

• Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

There is no separate word for is here. This is completely normal in Russian present-tense sentences.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order, although the original sentence is the most neutral and natural:

• Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

You might also hear variations like:

• Старое кресло мягче, чем этот диван.
  = The old armchair is softer than this sofa.
• Мягче этот диван, чем старое кресло.
  = possible, but marked and less neutral

Russian changes word order mainly for emphasis, contrast, or style, not because grammar requires a fixed order as strongly as English does.

Not usually. Кресло usually means an armchair or easy chair, not a simple dining chair.

A regular chair is:

• стул = chair

So:

• диван = sofa / couch
• кресло = armchair
• стул = chair

This matters because translating кресло as just chair can sound too broad or slightly inaccurate.

It is pronounced approximately like MYAKH-che, with the stress on the first syllable:

• мя́гче

A few pronunciation notes:

• мя sounds like mya
• гч together sounds close to khch or gch, but in normal speech it often comes out smoothly as something like мяхче
• the stress is on мя́-

The exact sound may be tricky at first, but the important thing is to recognize and produce мягче as one comparative form.

Yes, if the context already makes it clear which sofa you mean.

So you could say:

• Диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

This means:

• The sofa is softer than the old armchair or
• A sofa is softer than the old armchair

depending on context.

Using этот makes it more specific:

• Этот диван = this sofa

So including it helps point to a particular sofa.

It is the main and most straightforward way in sentences like this.

However, Russian also has another comparison pattern using the genitive case, especially with short comparatives:

• Этот диван мягче старого кресла.

This also means:

• This sofa is softer than the old armchair.

Here, instead of чем старое кресло, you get:

• старого кресла = genitive

Both patterns exist, but for learners, comparative + чем + nominative is often the clearest and easiest to understand at first.

Because in Russian, чем in comparisons is normally preceded by a comma.

So:

• Этот диван мягче, чем старое кресло.

This is standard punctuation.

English does not always use a comma before than, so this often feels unusual to English speakers. But in Russian, the comma is expected in this structure.