Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне вовсе не холодно после прогулки в ветреную погоду. - I am not cold at all after a walk in windy weather.

Russian uses impersonal constructions for sensations and feelings. The person experiencing the sensation goes into the dative case, so мне (to me) is correct. The word холодно then acts as a predicate meaning “(it is) cold,” literally “to me it is cold,” which we interpret as “I feel cold.”

Why is there no verb “to be” (like есть) in the sentence? How do we express “is cold”?

In the present tense Russian omits the copula есть (“to be”). The phrase мне холодно is a complete sentence meaning “I am cold.” If you wanted to be extremely formal or archaic, you could say мне есть холодно, but that is never used in modern speech.

What does вовсе не mean exactly? Can I replace it with совсем не?

вовсе не is an emphatic negation meaning “not at all” or “absolutely not.” You can often swap it with совсем не without changing the meaning (“I’m not cold at all”). Subtle nuance: вовсе feels slightly more formal or forceful than совсем, but both are perfectly acceptable.

Why is после прогулки in the genitive case (прогулки) and not another case?

The preposition после (“after”) always requires the following noun to be in the genitive case. So прогулка in nominative becomes прогулки in genitive.

Why do we use в + accusative (ветреную погоду) instead of в + prepositional (ветреной погоде)?

When в plus accusative is used with time expressions, it indicates “when” or “during” something. Here в ветреную погоду answers “when?” – “in windy weather.” If you used the prepositional case (ветреной погоде) with в, it would imply a static location (“in a windy weather that’s here”), which sounds odd.

Is холодно an adverb or an adjective? Why is it in neuter singular?

Although холодно ends in -о, it’s actually the neuter singular form of the adjective холодный used predicatively. Russian adjectives in impersonal sentences take neuter singular to express states or feelings (compare мне тепло, мне скучно).

What is ветреную, and why does it have the ending -ую?

ветреную is an adjective modifying погоду (feminine noun). In the accusative case, feminine singular adjectives of the hard stem type take the ending -ую (nominative ветреная, accusative ветреную).

Is the word order flexible? Could I say Вовсе мне не холодно or Мне не холодно вовсе?

Yes, word order in impersonal sentences is relatively free because there’s no true subject. The neutral order is Мне вовсе не холодно. You can front вовсе (Вовсе мне не холодно) for extra emphasis, or put вовсе after холодно (Мне не холодно вовсе) to shift the stress. All are understandable, but the original is most common.