Я закрыл окно перед дождем.

I closed the window before the rain.

Breakdown of Я закрыл окно перед дождем.

• я: I
• окно: the window
• закрыть: to close
• перед: before
• дождь: the rain

Questions & Answers about Я закрыл окно перед дождем.

Why is the verb закрыл in the past tense perfective form, and what does its form indicate about the speaker?

The verb закрыл is in the past tense and uses the perfective aspect, which shows that the action of closing the window is complete. In addition, its masculine form indicates that the speaker is male. If a female speaker were describing the action, she would say закрыла instead.

What function does the phrase перед дождем serve in the sentence, and why is the instrumental case used here?

The phrase перед дождем acts as an adverbial modifier that tells us when the action took place—it means "before the rain." In Russian, the preposition перед requires the following noun to be in the instrumental case, which is why дождем (the instrumental form of дождь) is used.

How does the word order in this Russian sentence compare to typical English word order regarding time phrases?

Russian generally follows a subject-verb-object order, and adverbial phrases like перед дождем are often placed at the end of the sentence to modify the whole action. Although English sometimes places time phrases at the beginning or end, the flexible word order of Russian makes this structure both natural and clear.

Why are there no articles (such as the) in the Russian sentence, even though they appear in the English translation?

Russian does not have articles like the or a, so nouns are used without them. The meaning is derived from context and other grammatical markers rather than relying on articles, which is why окно is used plainly without any article.

Would using a different preposition or case change the meaning of the sentence, for example, if one used до дождя instead of перед дождем?

Yes, the choice of preposition and case carries a specific meaning. Перед дождем indicates that the action occurred "right before the rain" began. In contrast, до дождя would suggest an action happening "until the rain" or "up to the point of rain," which does not clearly convey the same anticipatory action. The current phrasing precisely expresses that the window was closed in preparation for the impending rain.