Weather is one of the very first things you'll talk about in Russian, and it's also a perfect window into a feature that English simply doesn't have: subjectless sentences. English forces a dummy "it" into every weather sentence — it's cold, it's raining — because an English sentence must have a subject. Russian doesn't. "It's cold" is just Хо́лодно — one word, no subject, no verb. And when there is a verb, the logic flips: in Идёт дождь ("it's raining") the rain itself is the grammatical subject and literally "goes." Learn the weather and you've learned the impersonal heart of Russian grammar.
"It's cold / warm / hot": subjectless predicatives
The most common weather statements are single predicative adverbs — words like хо́лодно, тепло́, жа́рко — used with no subject and no verb in the present. There is nothing for "it" to attach to; the bare word is the whole sentence. This is the same impersonal structure you'll meet again in feelings and states.
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| Хо́лодно | It's cold |
| Тепло́ | It's warm |
| Жа́рко | It's hot |
| Прохла́дно | It's cool / chilly |
| Душно | It's stuffy / muggy |
| Со́лнечно | It's sunny |
| Па́смурно | It's overcast |
| Сы́ро | It's damp |
На у́лице хо́лодно, наде́нь ша́пку.
It's cold outside, put on a hat. — Хо́лодно alone is the whole clause; на у́лице ('outside, lit. on the street') is where, not a subject.
Как же сего́дня жа́рко! Включи́ кондиционе́р.
Goodness, it's hot today! Turn on the AC. — жа́рко, no subject, no verb.
У нас в кварти́ре всегда́ прохла́дно ле́том.
Our flat is always cool in summer. — прохла́дно is the predicate; ле́том = 'in summer'.
For the past and future you add the neuter form of "to be": бы́ло хо́лодно ("it was cold"), бу́дет жа́рко ("it'll be hot"). The neuter бы́ло/бу́дет is the giveaway that this is impersonal — there's no masculine or feminine subject for it to agree with.
Вчера́ бы́ло о́чень хо́лодно, а сего́дня тепле́е.
Yesterday it was very cold, and today it's warmer. — past бы́ло хо́лодно; тепле́е = comparative 'warmer'.
За́втра обеща́ют, что бу́дет со́лнечно.
They're forecasting that it'll be sunny tomorrow. — future бу́дет со́лнечно.
"It's raining / snowing": precipitation as a moving subject
When precipitation falls, Russian doesn't use a "cold"-style predicative. It uses a real verb of motion — идти́ ("to go / walk") — with the precipitation as the grammatical subject. Rain literally "goes."
| Russian | Literal | English |
|---|---|---|
| Идёт дождь | "rain goes" | It's raining |
| Идёт снег | "snow goes" | It's snowing |
| Идёт град | "hail goes" | It's hailing |
| Шёл дождь | "rain went" (masc. past) | It was raining |
Because дождь and снег are masculine nouns, the verb agrees with them: present идёт, past masculine шёл (шёл дождь, шёл снег). This is the same идти́ you use for people walking — Russian extends the "going" metaphor to falling weather. The connection to ordinary motion is on the идти́ / ходи́ть page.
Возьми́ зонт — на у́лице идёт дождь.
Take an umbrella — it's raining outside. — дождь is the subject, идёт agrees with it.
Всю ночь шёл снег, и сейча́с всё бе́лое.
It snowed all night, and now everything's white. — past шёл (masc., agreeing with снег).
Кажется, начина́ется дождь.
Looks like it's starting to rain. — начина́ется дождь = 'rain is beginning'.
Other weather phenomena get their own verbs, again with the weather word as subject: Све́тит со́лнце ("the sun is shining"), Ду́ет ве́тер ("the wind is blowing"), Сверка́ет мо́лния ("lightning is flashing"), Гром греми́т ("thunder is rumbling").
Наконе́ц-то све́тит со́лнце, пойдём гуля́ть!
The sun's finally out, let's go for a walk! — со́лнце is the subject of све́тит.
Ду́ет си́льный ве́тер, держи́ ша́пку.
A strong wind is blowing, hold on to your hat. — ве́тер is the subject of ду́ет.
Impersonal weather verbs: no subject at all
A third group is fully impersonal: a single neuter-form verb with no subject describing a process. These describe getting dark, getting colder, freezing — the change is happening to the world at large.
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| Темне́ет | It's getting dark |
| Светле́ет | It's getting light |
| Похолода́ло | It's turned colder (perfective past) |
| Потепле́ло | It's turned warmer |
| Моро́зит | It's freezing (cold) |
| Подмора́живает | It's getting frosty |
| Капа́ет | It's spitting / drizzling |
These verbs only ever appear in the third-person singular / neuter form — they can't take "я" or "ты," because nobody performs them. Похолода́ло ("it got colder") is past-tense neuter with no subject at all.
Уже́ темне́ет, пора́ домо́й.
It's already getting dark, time to head home. — темне́ет, fully impersonal.
За ночь си́льно похолода́ло.
It got much colder overnight. — похолода́ло, impersonal perfective past.
Сего́дня моро́зит, на доро́гах гололёд.
It's freezing today, the roads are icy. — моро́зит, impersonal.
Asking about and describing the weather
The standard question is Кака́я сего́дня пого́да? ("What's the weather like today?") — literally "What kind of weather [is] today?" Note that пого́да is feminine, so the question word кака́я is feminine to agree. You answer either with a predicative (Хо́лодно) or with a full sentence: Пого́да хоро́шая / плоха́я.
— Кака́я за́втра пого́да? — Обеща́ют дождь и ве́тер.
— What's the weather tomorrow? — They're forecasting rain and wind.
Сего́дня прекра́сная пого́да — ни о́блачка.
The weather's gorgeous today — not a cloud. — ни о́блачка = genitive after ни.
Temperature: the genitive after "degrees"
Temperature uses гра́дус ("degree") plus the genitive of тепло́ ("warmth") or моро́з ("frost") for above/below zero. After numbers, гра́дус itself declines by the number-government rules: оди́н гра́дус, два/три/четы́ре гра́дуса, пять… гра́дусов.
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| де́сять гра́дусов тепла́ | ten degrees above zero (lit. "of warmth") |
| пять гра́дусов моро́за | five degrees below zero (lit. "of frost") |
| два́дцать гра́дусов вы́ше нуля́ | twenty degrees above zero |
| ми́нус три | minus three (colloquial) |
На у́лице плюс пятна́дцать, мо́жно без ку́ртки.
It's plus fifteen outside, you can go without a jacket. — colloquial плюс/ми́нус for the temperature.
У́тром бы́ло де́сять гра́дусов моро́за.
It was minus ten this morning. — гра́дусов моро́за, genitive after the quantity and after 'frost'.
Seasons and "when": the bare instrumental
To say when — in a season, or a time of day — Russian uses the bare instrumental case with no preposition. There is no "in." This is one of the cleanest, most useful patterns in the language.
| Nominative | Instrumental "when" | English |
|---|---|---|
| зима́ | зимо́й | in winter |
| весна́ | весно́й | in spring |
| ле́то | ле́том | in summer |
| о́сень | о́сенью | in autumn |
| у́тро | у́тром | in the morning |
| ночь | но́чью | at night |
Зимо́й у нас ча́сто идёт снег.
In winter it often snows here. — зимо́й, bare instrumental for 'when'.
Ле́том здесь жа́рко, а о́сенью дождли́во.
In summer it's hot here, and in autumn it's rainy. — ле́том and о́сенью, both bare instrumental.
Common Mistakes
❌ Это хо́лодно сего́дня. / Оно́ хо́лодно.
Incorrect — there's no subject pronoun in a weather predicative. English 'it' has no Russian equivalent here.
✅ Сего́дня хо́лодно.
It's cold today. — just the predicative, no 'it'.
❌ Сейча́с дождли́т. / Дождь идёт меня́.
Incorrect — 'it's raining' is Идёт дождь (rain is the subject of идти́), not a made-up impersonal verb and no object.
✅ Сейча́с идёт дождь.
It's raining now. — дождь is the subject, идёт the verb.
❌ В зиму́ хо́лодно. / На зиме́ хо́лодно.
Incorrect — 'in winter' is the bare instrumental зимо́й, with no preposition at all.
✅ Зимо́й хо́лодно.
It's cold in winter. — bare instrumental зимо́й.
❌ Бы́ла хо́лодно вчера́.
Incorrect — impersonal 'to be' stays NEUTER: бы́ло хо́лодно, never feminine бы́ла (there's no feminine subject).
✅ Вчера́ бы́ло хо́лодно.
It was cold yesterday. — neuter бы́ло.
❌ Сего́дня де́сять гра́дусы тепла́.
Incorrect — after 'ten' the noun is genitive plural гра́дусов, not nominative гра́дусы.
✅ Сего́дня де́сять гра́дусов тепла́.
It's ten above today. — гра́дусов, genitive plural after the number.
Key Takeaways
- "It's cold/hot" = bare predicative with no subject and no verb: Хо́лодно, Жа́рко, Прохла́дно. Past/future add neuter бы́ло / бу́дет.
- "It's raining/snowing" = Идёт дождь / снег — precipitation is the subject of идти́ ("goes"); the verb agrees (шёл дождь in the past).
- Impersonal weather verbs (Темне́ет, Похолода́ло, Моро́зит) have no subject at all and only ever appear in the neuter / third-singular form.
- Temperature uses the genitive: гра́дусов тепла́ / моро́за, with гра́дус declining after the number.
- Seasons and times of day as "when" take the bare instrumental with no preposition: зимо́й, ле́том, у́тром, но́чью.
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- Impersonal and Subjectless SentencesB1 — Russian routinely builds full sentences with no grammatical subject at all. Weather (Темне́ет), dative-experiencer states (Мне ску́чно), modal necessity (Мне на́до идти́), indefinite-personal 3rd-plural (Говоря́т, что…) and natural-force instrumentals (Доро́гу занесло́ сне́гом) all do without a nominative subject. This page maps the main subjectless patterns and shows why supplying an English-style dummy subject is the classic transfer error.
- Predicative Adverbs (the 'Category of State')B1 — The -о words that act as the PREDICATE of a subjectless sentence: Мне хо́лодно (I'm cold), Здесь ти́хо (it's quiet here), На у́лице темно́ (it's dark outside). The experiencer, if there is one, is in the DATIVE — there is no nominative subject. This is the слова́ катего́рии состоя́ния (category of state). Modal predicatives на́до, ну́жно, мо́жно, нельзя́, пора́, жаль belong to the same family. Past and future use frozen neuter бы́ло / бу́дет (Мне бы́ло хо́лодно). They look identical to manner adverbs (Он говори́т ти́хо) but do a completely different grammatical job.
- Идти vs Ходить (Going on Foot)A2 — The single most frequent motion pair in Russian. ИДТИ́ (unidirectional) is a trip on foot in progress toward one goal — Я иду́ домо́й ('I'm on my way home') — and covers the planned near future (За́втра я иду́ в теа́тр). ХОДИ́ТЬ (multidirectional) covers habits, round trips, general walking ability, and 'attend' — Я хожу́ в спортза́л три ра́за в неде́лю. Plus the idioms идёт carries: Дождь идёт, Вре́мя идёт, Фильм идёт.
- Instrumental for Time of Day, Seasons, and MannerA2 — 'In the morning', 'in summer', 'at night' are BARE instrumentals in Russian — у́тром, ле́том, но́чью — with NO preposition. Times of day (у́тром, днём, ве́чером, но́чью) and seasons (весно́й, ле́том, о́сенью, зимо́й) take the plain instrumental for 'in/at/during'. So does manner: говори́ть шёпотом (in a whisper), идти́ бы́стрым ша́гом (at a brisk pace), е́хать ско́рым по́ездом (by express train). These are frozen, adverbialised instrumentals — Russian treats the time or manner as the 'means' by which something happens, so 'in winter' is one word, зимо́й, never *в зиме.
- Genitive After Quantity WordsA2 — мно́го, ма́ло, немно́го, не́сколько, ско́лько, сто́лько, бо́льше, ме́ньше all govern the genitive: genitive PLURAL for things you can count (мно́го книг, ско́лько люде́й) and genitive SINGULAR for mass/abstract nouns (мно́го воды́, ма́ло вре́мени). Measures behave the same (килогра́мм я́блок, буты́лка вина́, ча́шка ко́фе). The count/mass split — invisible in English's much/many — decides singular vs plural.
- Weather and the SeasonsA2 — Seasonal weather talk and the grammar inside it: the four seasons (весна́, ле́то, о́сень, зима́) and their bare-instrumental adverbs весно́й / ле́том / о́сенью / зимо́й ('in spring/summer…' with NO preposition), precipitation as a moving subject (Идёт дождь / снег — 'rain/snow goes'), subjectless weather predicatives (Со́лнечно, Па́смурно, Тепло́, Хо́лодно — no 'it'), and temperatures in the genitive (+25 гра́дусов, ми́нус де́сять).