Thread: What about suffixes: -ен, -но, -на? What is this rule?

According to "A Comprehensive Russian Grammar" by Terrance Wade, short form adjectives are used to describe temporary states.

For example, "Он болен." ('He is (temporarily) sick.')

The long form adjectives are use for more permanent descriptions.

"Он больной." ('He is (chronically) sick.')

With this and the context of your question, "счастлив" would be the correct from to use, because you are happy at a given moment (or for some specific reason), rather than happy all the time.

Originally Posted by krwright13

According to "A Comprehensive Russian Grammar" by Terrance Wade, short form adjectives are used to describe temporary states.

Well... This is right... but not exactly right. Grammatically in phrases like "A is B" in literary Russian, B can be either short form adjective or noun, but not full form adjective. When B looks like a full form adjective, in fact it is an adjectival noun.

So "Он болен"="He is sick", "Он - больной"="He is a sick person" or "He is a patient"

Often it has effect described as "short term VS permanent", but not always.