Учитывая погоду, мы остались дома.

Учитывая is the gerund / adverbial participle of учитывать (to take into account, to consider).

In this sentence, учитывая погоду means something like:

• considering the weather
• taking the weather into account

So it introduces the circumstance under which the action happened.

A very literal breakdown is:

• учитывая = taking into account / considering
• погоду = the weather
• мы остались дома = we stayed at home

In modern Russian, учитывая is often used almost like a fixed expression meaning considering.

Because учитывать normally takes a direct object, and direct objects are usually in the accusative.

So:

• учитывать что? — погоду

That is why you get:

• учитывая погоду

not:

• учитывая погода

The dictionary form is погода, but after учитывая it becomes погоду.

Historically, it is a verb form: the adverbial participle of учитывать.

But in actual usage, especially in sentences like this one, it can feel very close to a preposition-like expression meaning considering.

So for a learner, it is useful to think of it in two ways at once:

1. Grammar origin: a verb form
2. Practical meaning in context: almost like considering / given

That is why учитывая погоду can often be understood as a set phrase.

Because учитывая погоду is an adverbial participial phrase introducing extra circumstance, and such phrases are normally set off by commas in Russian.

So:

• Учитывая погоду, мы остались дома.

This comma is standard.

You can think of it like the English pattern:

• Considering the weather, we stayed home.

The opening phrase is separated from the main clause.

Because дома means at home, while домой means to home / homeward.

So:

• остаться дома = to stay at home
• пойти домой = to go home

Here the idea is location, not direction. They remained in that place. So Russian uses:

• дома = at home

Compare:

• Мы остались дома. = We stayed home / stayed at home.
• Мы пошли домой. = We went home.

Остались is the past plural form of остаться, which usually means:

• to remain
• to stay

In this sentence, мы остались дома means:

• we stayed home
• literally, we remained at home

Russian often uses остаться where English naturally says stay.

Because остаться is perfective, while оставаться is imperfective.

Here, the sentence presents the action as a completed decision/result:

• Considering the weather, we stayed home.

It is a single whole event, so остались fits well.

Compare:

• Мы остались дома. = We stayed home. / We ended up staying home.
• Мы оставались дома весь день. = We were staying / remained at home all day.

The imperfective оставались would emphasize duration or ongoing state more strongly.

Not exactly, though they can be close in meaning.

• учитывая погоду = considering the weather, taking the weather into account
• из-за погоды = because of the weather, often more directly causal

So:

• Учитывая погоду, мы остались дома.
  = Considering the weather, we stayed home.

• Из-за погоды мы остались дома.
  = Because of the weather, we stayed home.

The first sounds a little more like we made a decision after taking the weather into account.
The second sounds more directly like the weather caused this.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible.

For example, you can say:

• Учитывая погоду, мы остались дома.
• Мы, учитывая погоду, остались дома.
• Мы остались дома, учитывая погоду.

The first version is the most natural and clear in many contexts.

Putting учитывая погоду at the beginning works well because it sets up the circumstance before the main statement.

It is understood to be the same subject as in the main clause:

• мы = we

So the meaning is:

• Considering the weather, we stayed home
• in other words, we considered the weather and stayed home

This is important because, in Russian, adverbial participles normally relate to the subject of the main clause.

So this sentence is natural because the people who considered the weather are the same people who stayed home.

No, not in the usual sense.

Here дома is an adverb, meaning:

• at home

This is a very common word and should be learned as a set item:

• быть дома = to be at home
• остаться дома = to stay at home
• сидеть дома = to sit/stay at home

It looks like a noun form historically, but in modern usage learners should usually treat it as an adverb of place.

Yes, that is a very literal and grammatically faithful translation.

But in natural English, you would more often say:

• Considering the weather, we stayed home.
• Given the weather, we stayed home.
• Because of the weather, we stayed home. (slightly different nuance)

So your literal translation is correct, but a smoother English version may sound more natural.

The base verb is учитывать.

Its rough structure is:

• учитывать = to take into account / consider

The form учитывая is the adverbial participle of the imperfective verb.

For many imperfective verbs, this form is made with -я or -а:

• читать → читая = reading
• делать → делая = doing
• учитывать → учитывая = considering / taking into account

So if you know the verb учитывать, the form учитывая becomes easier to recognize.

It is mostly neutral, but учитывая sounds a little more written or careful than the most everyday casual alternatives.

For example:

• Учитывая погоду, мы остались дома. = neutral, slightly polished
• Из-за погоды мы остались дома. = very common and everyday
• С такой погодой мы остались дома. = more conversational in some contexts

So the original sentence is perfectly normal, but it may sound a bit more deliberate than the simplest spoken version.