Questions & Answers about Это не день, это ночь.
Both день and ночь end in a soft sign. How do I know which gender they are?
Since день is masculine and ночь is feminine, why doesn't это change gender to match?
How does the soft sign at the end change the pronunciation of день and ночь?
The soft sign (ь) has no sound of its own, but it softens the consonant before it. In день, it makes the 'n' sound soft, similar to the 'ny' in 'canyon'. In ночь, the 'ch' sound is already always soft in Russian, so the soft sign here is a spelling rule that also helps show the word is feminine.
Why aren't there any words for 'is' or 'a' in this Russian sentence?
Russian doesn't have articles like 'a' or 'the'. Also, in the present tense, Russian almost always drops the verb 'to be' (is, am, are). So the phrase 'This is not a day' translates literally as 'This not day' (Это не день).