Это неудобное время для встречи.

In Russian, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.

So:

• Это неудобное время для встречи. literally looks like: This/it inconvenient time for meeting
• but naturally means: This is an inconvenient time for a meeting or It’s an inconvenient time to meet

In past or future tense, Russian does use forms of быть:

• Это было неудобное время для встречи. = This was an inconvenient time for a meeting
• Это будет неудобное время для встречи. = This will be an inconvenient time for a meeting

It can feel like either, depending on how you translate it.

In this sentence, это points to a situation and works like:

• this
• it
• this is

So Это неудобное время для встречи can be understood as:

• This is an inconvenient time for a meeting
• It’s an inconvenient time to meet

Russian это is very common in this kind of sentence and often does more work than a single English word.

Because неудобное has to agree with время, and время is a neuter singular noun.

Russian adjectives change form to match the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• время = neuter, singular, nominative
• so the adjective must also be neuter singular nominative
• that gives неудобное

Compare:

• неудобный день = an inconvenient day
• неудобная встреча = an inconvenient meeting
• неудобное время = an inconvenient time

Yes, время is a neuter noun, and it belongs to a small special group of Russian nouns ending in -мя.

These nouns are somewhat irregular. A few examples are:

• время = time
• имя = name
• пламя = flame

They are neuter in gender, even though they do not end in the more typical neuter endings -о or -е.

So in this sentence:

• время is nominative singular
• неудобное agrees with it as neuter singular

Because the preposition для requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• встреча = meeting

After для, it changes to the genitive singular:

• для встречи = for a meeting / for the meeting

So:

• для + genitive is a pattern you should learn as a unit

Other examples:

• для друга = for a friend
• для работы = for work
• для разговора = for a conversation

Here, встречи is genitive singular.

The noun is:

• nominative singular: встреча
• genitive singular: встречи

This form can sometimes look the same as nominative plural for some nouns, which can be confusing. But after для, it is clearly genitive, so here it means:

• for a meeting
• for the meeting

not for meetings

Yes, but the structure changes slightly and the meaning shifts a bit.

• Это неудобное время для встречи = This is an inconvenient time for a meeting
• Это неудобно для встречи = This is inconvenient for a meeting

The first sentence focuses on time as a noun: an inconvenient time.

The second uses неудобно, which is a predicative form meaning inconvenient in a more general sense.

Also compare:

• Сейчас неудобно встречаться. = It’s inconvenient to meet now.

So Russian has several natural ways to express this idea.

They are related, but they do different jobs.

• неудобное = a full adjective
• неудобно = an adverb/predicative form

In your sentence:

• неудобное describes the noun время
• so it must agree with время

Example:

• неудобное время = an inconvenient time

But:

• неудобно is often used in sentences like Мне неудобно or Сейчас неудобно встречаться
• there it means something like it is inconvenient or I’m uncomfortable/it’s awkward

So if there is a noun being described, you usually need the adjective form:

• неудобное время

Often, yes, in meaning.

Russian неудобный literally means something like:

• inconvenient
• awkward
• unsuitable

So неудобное время often corresponds to English:

• an inconvenient time
• a bad time
• not a good time

For example, if someone calls you when you are busy, you might say that now is неудобное время.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Это неудобное время для встречи.

But you could also hear:

• Для встречи это неудобное время.

This changes the emphasis a little. The second version highlights for a meeting more strongly.

Even though word order can move around, the cases still show the grammatical relationships:

• время is still the main noun
• для встречи still means for a meeting

Неудобный is a normal dictionary word meaning inconvenient, awkward, or uncomfortable.

So in this sentence, it is best to treat неудобное as the adjective неудобный in the correct form, not as if you are building the meaning fresh every time from не + удобный.

That said, historically and logically it is related to:

• удобный = convenient, comfortable
• неудобный = inconvenient, uncomfortable

But learners usually benefit from memorizing неудобный as a full vocabulary item.

The main stresses are:

• Э́то
• неудо́бное
• вре́мя
• для
• встре́чи

A rough pronunciation guide:

• Э́то ≈ EH-ta
• неудо́бное ≈ nee-oo-DOB-na-ye
• вре́мя ≈ VRYE-mya
• для ≈ dlya
• встре́чи ≈ FSTRYE-chee or vstrYE-chee depending on how carefully you pronounce the initial consonants

The two words many learners want to practice slowly are:

• время
• встречи

Not usually.

Because of это, the sentence is normally understood as:

• This is an inconvenient time for a meeting or
• It’s an inconvenient time to meet

If you wanted to say This time is inconvenient for the meeting, you would more likely use:

• Это время неудобно для встречи.

That version makes время more clearly the subject: this time.

So compare:

• Это неудобное время для встречи. = This is an inconvenient time for a meeting
• Это время неудобно для встречи. = This time is inconvenient for a meeting