27) Weather and Nature
It's raining
"To go" is the verb used for precipitation in Russian:
- Идёт дождь = It is raining.
- Идёт снег. = It is snowing.
- Идёт град. = it is hailing (we don't have it in the course).
in summer/winter
Russian has adverbs for "in spring", "in summer" etc. They are formed as the Instrumental case of a corresponding noun.
We'll cover Intrumental in detail later. Right now just get used to the words themselves:
- Весно́й мо́кро. = It's wet in spring
- Зимо́й хорошо́ = It's good/nice in winter.
- О́сенью гря́зно. = It's muddy in the fall.
- Ле́том со́лнечно. = It is sunny in summer.
Russians usually assign each season 3 months, i.e. winter is December through February and spring is March through May (even if you have snow well into April).
Category of State
It is easier than it sounds. When expressing a "state", some modality, or one's opinion on the situation, Russian often uses these impersonal words, saying that such and such state is observed:
- Мне хо́лодно. = I'm (feeling) cold.
- На у́лице тепло́. = It is warm outside.
- Хорошо́, что вы тут. = It is good you are here.
- Тру́дно сказа́ть. = It is hard to say.
Many are homonymous with adverbs and short-form adjectives. So we'll study them later with adjectives. For now, we' only have a handful of such words useful when discussing the weather.
Needless to say, these do not use any grammatical subject and are quite useful with verbs like "to be" and "to become" ("It's getting warmer").
The concept of "category of state" is not even taught to native speakers. However, it does have a distinctive pattern of use. Makes it easier to learn when you know why you say «мне хо́лодно».