У этого котёнка белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост.

Russian usually does not use a direct equivalent of English have in simple possession sentences.

Instead, it commonly uses this pattern:

У + possessor (Genitive) + possessed thing

So:

У этого котёнка белые лапы...
literally means something like:

By this kitten, there are white paws...

In natural English, that becomes:

This kitten has white paws...

This у + Genitive structure is one of the most important patterns for possession in Russian.

Both words are in the genitive singular because they follow у.

• этот → этого
• котёнок → котёнка

So:

• этот котёнок = this kitten (nominative)
• у этого котёнка = of / by this kitten (genitive after у)

A learner may notice that котёнка looks like the accusative too. That is true: for animate masculine nouns, the genitive and accusative singular often look the same. But here it is definitely genitive, because у requires it.

Because котёнок is the dictionary form, but after у it must be in the genitive:

• котёнок → nominative singular
• котёнка → genitive singular

This is just normal noun declension.

A useful pattern:

• У котёнка... = The kitten has...
• У кошки... = The cat has...
• У собаки... = The dog has...

So the change is grammatical, not a change of meaning.

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

Here the possessed body parts are the grammatical subject of the sentence, so they are in the nominative.

• лапы is plural → белые лапы
• усы is plural → длинные усы
• хвост is masculine singular → смешной хвост

So:

• белые = plural form
• длинные = plural form
• смешной = masculine singular form

That is why the adjective endings do not all match.

Yes. Лапы is the plural of лапа and here it means paws as a set.

Russian often describes body parts in the plural when speaking generally:

• У него голубые глаза. = He has blue eyes.
• У собаки сильные лапы. = The dog has strong paws.

So белые лапы simply means white paws. It does not need to specify the number unless that matters.

Усы is normally a plural word meaning either:

• mustache / moustache (on a person), or
• whiskers (on an animal)

For a kitten, усы means whiskers.

Russian treats this as a plural set, much like English whiskers. A singular ус can mean a single whisker or hair, but in normal description you usually use усы.

So:

• длинные усы = long whiskers

Because смешной describes only хвост, which is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative:

• смешной хвост = a funny tail

It is not agreeing with the whole list. Each adjective matches its own noun:

• белые ↔ лапы
• длинные ↔ усы
• смешной ↔ хвост

Yes, in a way. In the present tense, Russian often omits есть in sentences of existence or possession.

A fuller literal structure would be something like:

У этого котёнка есть белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост.

But in many descriptive contexts, especially when simply listing features, Russian often leaves есть out:

У этого котёнка белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост.

This sounds natural and idiomatic.

Very roughly:

• with есть: more explicitly has
• without есть: a plain descriptive statement, very common in Russian

Yes, absolutely.

Both are possible:

• У этого котёнка белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост.
• У этого котёнка есть белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост.

The version without есть is often more natural when simply describing someone's features.

The version with есть may sound a bit more emphatic or explicit, especially if you are stressing the fact that the kitten possesses these features.

In many beginner contexts, both are acceptable, but the version without есть is very common in descriptive Russian.

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible.

The original sentence starts with У этого котёнка, which puts the possessor first and frames the sentence as a description of the kitten:

As for this kitten, it has white paws, long whiskers, and a funny tail.

You could rearrange parts of it, for example:

• Белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост у этого котёнка.

But that sounds more marked and stylistic. It may emphasize the listed features rather than the kitten.

For a neutral textbook-style sentence, У этого котёнка... is the most natural order.

Russian has no articles like English a/an and the.

So nouns such as лапы, усы, and хвост do not show definiteness with an article. You understand it from context.

In this sentence, English naturally uses no article for the plural nouns:

• white paws
• long whiskers

And for хвост, English could say:

• a funny tail
• sometimes just funny tail in a looser translation, though a funny tail is more natural

The Russian itself does not mark that distinction directly.

Котёнок means kitten.

It is the normal everyday word for a young cat. Historically it has a diminutive-type formation, but in modern Russian it is simply the standard word for kitten, not an unusually cute or emotional version.

So:

• кот = male cat / tomcat
• кошка = female cat / cat
• котёнок = kitten

In this sentence, it is completely neutral and natural.

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• этого is spelled with г, but in this word it is commonly pronounced more like э-та-ва
• котёнка has stress on ё: ка-ТЁН-ка
• ё always marks stress when written

So a rough pronunciation of the beginning is:

у Э-та-ва ка-ТЁН-ка

Also note:

• белые = БЕ-лы-е
• лапы = ЛА-пы
• усы = у-СЫ
• хвост = хвост with the consonant cluster pronounced together

A very rough full stress guide:

У э́того котёнка бе́лые ла́пы, дли́нные усы́ и смешно́й хвост.

Because Russian punctuation works like English here: when you have a simple list, you put commas between the items, but not before the final и:

• белые лапы, длинные усы и смешной хвост

That is just a normal three-item list:

1. белые лапы
2. длинные усы
3. смешной хвост

So the punctuation is completely standard.

Yes, смешной can mean:

• funny
• comical
• ridiculous-looking
• amusing

In this sentence, with хвост, it most likely means something like:

• funny
• cute and amusing
• odd in an endearing way

So смешной хвост probably suggests the kitten’s tail looks amusing or charming, not that it is bad or absurd in a harsh way. Context and tone decide the exact nuance.