минимальный vs. минимален

Hey all,

I've been looking in an online dictionary, and for some adjectives, the entry includes a second version. When is it appropriate to use each?
минимальный (минимален)

Thanks!
Richard D. Reavis

http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/compar.html

The Regular Short Comparative Form

The regular short form of the comparative degree is written -ee but pronounced -ей; in fact, it is written -ей on one word: скорей 'quicker'. This ending replaces the feminine short-form ending and therefore regular comparatives have the same accent placement as the feminine short-form adjective.


Regular Short Form Comparative Adjectives

Base Form --Masculine Short Form --Feminine Short Form --Comparative

умный --умён --умна --умнее
быстрый быстр быстра быстрее
медленный медлен медленна медленнее
новый нов нова новее
скучный скучен скучна скучнее

минимальный минимален минимальна минимальнее

So минимальный is a normal form of the adjectives while минимален is a short form (both are masculine). The usage of the short form is rather tricky but it can always be replaced by a normal form. I recommend you to use a normal form always unless you are very fluent in Russian.

I was just doing a lesson on short form adj. in my textbook. The authors note that the short form is rarely used in spoken Russian, but it is preferred when expressing "a quality that is temporary, relational, or in some way limited by the specific context to a particular aspect." (Russian Stage Two, Martin and Sokolova)

as an example:

Эта картина выразительная. This painting is expressive (in general).

Эта картина выразительна по сюжету. This painting is expressive in its subject.

Also, when the subject of a sentence is one of these-- (Э)то, всё, что, одно, другое, последнее, главное --the predicate should be a neuter short-form adjective.

Это интересно. Главное ясно. et cetera.

Hope that's of some help.

The main thing to know is that the short forms in modern Russian are only used in the predicative position. To put it plain it means they are used after "to be" verb, that in the present tense is omitted.
Жизнь коротка. The life is short. (short form)
У него была короткая жизнь. He had a short life. (full form)