Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда все окна уже закрыты и улица пуста, моя голова наконец свободна от лишних мыслей. - When all the windows are already closed and the street is empty, my head is finally free from unnecessary thoughts.

You could theoretically insert есть («моя голова есть свободна»), but in modern Russian it sounds unnatural or stylistically marked. The zero-copula (no visible “to be”) is the normal way to say “X is Y” in the present.

What exactly is «закрыты» here? Is it a verb, an adjective, or something else?

«Закрыты» is a short-form passive participle functioning like a predicate adjective:

Base verb: закрыть (“to close” something, perfective).
Full participle/adjective: закрытый (“closed”).
Short form: закрыт / закрыта / закрыто / закрыты.

In «все окна уже закрыты», it means “(are) closed” as a state:

окна закрыты ≈ “the windows are closed” (focus on the resulting state).

So grammatically it’s not a finite verb form like “closed” in they closed the windows; it’s a participle/adjective saying what condition the windows are in.

Why is it «улица пуста» and not «улица пустая»? What’s the difference?

Both are possible, but they’re not identical in tone:

«улица пуста» – short-form adjective (пуст / пуста / пусто / пусты).
«улица пустая» – full-form adjective.

Typical nuance:

Short form (пуста) is more bookish/literary, often used to describe a temporary state or a clear, “complete” condition: “the street is (completely) empty (right now)”.
Full form (пустая) can feel a bit more descriptive, like a quality of the street, and is more neutral in everyday speech.

Here «улица пуста» nicely fits the poetic, reflective tone: late, quiet, the street is fully empty.

Why is it «моя голова … свободна» and not «я свободен от лишних мыслей»? Is there a difference?

Both are grammatically fine and close in meaning, but the focus changes:

«Я свободен от лишних мыслей» – focuses on “I” as a person being free from extra thoughts.
«Моя голова свободна от лишних мыслей» – focuses on the head / mind specifically as the place where thoughts live.

Using голова here:

Emphasizes the mental space: it’s my head that is finally clear.
Sounds natural and common in Russian when talking about being mentally clear:
- «У меня голова забита проблемами» – “my head is full of problems.”
- «Голова свободна» – “my head is clear.”

So the author chooses голова to highlight mental clarity rather than personal freedom in a broad sense.

What case are «лишних мыслей» in, and why is that case used?

«Лишних мыслей» is in the genitive plural:

Noun: мысль → plural nominative мысли, plural genitive мыслей.
Adjective: лишний → plural genitive лишних.

The genitive is required by the preposition от in this construction:

свободен от чего? – free from what? → от лишних мыслей.

So the pattern is:

свободен / свободна / свободны от + genitive
- свободен от страха – free from fear
- свободна от обязанностей – free from duties
- свободна от лишних мыслей – free from extra/unnecessary thoughts

What does «лишний» add here? How is it different from just “thoughts”?

Лишний literally means “extra, superfluous, unnecessary, redundant.”

So «лишние мысли» are not just any thoughts, but thoughts that are:

not needed,
getting in the way,
cluttering the mind.

Without лишний, «мысли» would just be “thoughts” neutrally.
With «лишние мысли», the sentence implies mental noise, worries, overthinking – thoughts that shouldn’t be there and from which the speaker feels relief.

This adjective is very common in Russian to signal something in excess or not needed:

лишний килограмм – an extra kilo (of weight)
лишний человек – someone unnecessary in a situation
лишние слова – unnecessary words

Why is «лишних мыслей» after от and not без лишних мыслей? Are от and без interchangeable here?

Both от and без can be used with genitive, but they’re not the same:

от + genitive with свободен is the standard pattern:
- свободен от боли – free from pain
- свободен от обязанностей – free from duties
- свободна от лишних мыслей – free from extra thoughts.

It strongly suggests freedom from some previous burden.

без + genitive simply means “without”, more neutral:
- без мыслей – without thoughts
- без лишних мыслей – without extra thoughts (descriptive, not necessarily “freedom”).

So:

«моя голова свободна от лишних мыслей» – my head is freed/relieved from them.
«моя голова без лишних мыслей» – my head is (just) without extra thoughts (less emotional, less about liberation).

Why is it «когда все окна уже закрыты и улица пуста» with verbs/adjectives that look “past”, if we’re talking about a present situation?

Russian often describes present states with:

short-form passive participles (like закрыты)
short-form adjectives (like пуста, свободна)

and omits the present “to be”.

So structurally:

все окна (есть) закрыты – literally “all windows (are) closed”.
улица (есть) пуста – “the street (is) empty”.

Even though закрыты comes from a past participle, in this sentence it’s about the current state of the windows, not a past event sequence. The когда clause is effectively “When all the windows are already closed and the street is empty…” – present-time condition.

What is the function of «уже» in «все окна уже закрыты»? Could we just say «все окна закрыты»?

You could say «все окна закрыты» and it would be grammatically fine, meaning “all the windows are closed.”

Adding «уже» gives an extra nuance:

уже ≈ “already” – it signals that a certain moment or threshold has been reached.

So:

«все окна закрыты» – just states the fact.
«все окна уже закрыты» – emphasizes that by this time, the windows are already closed (earlier they were open; now that stage is over).

In the larger sentence, уже helps paint the late, finished feeling: the day is over, things are shut, it’s quiet enough for the mind to clear.

Can we change the word order to «уже все окна закрыты»? Is that different from «все окна уже закрыты»?

Yes, «уже все окна закрыты» is also possible, but the focus shifts slightly.

«Все окна уже закрыты» – more neutral: subject (все окна) first, then уже закрыты.
«Уже все окна закрыты» – places уже earlier, which can make the “already” idea more prominent: “By now, all the windows are already closed.”

In everyday speech, both orders can be used; the difference is mostly in intonation and emphasis, not in basic grammar. The given word order is the most neutral and commonly taught: subject → adverb → predicative.

Why is it «улица пуста» (feminine singular) but «окна … закрыты» (plural)?

Because the predicate agrees with its subject:

улица – feminine singular noun → short adjective пуста (feminine singular).
- masculine: пуст
- feminine: пуста
- neuter: пусто
- plural: пусты
окна – plural (nominative plural of окно) → short participle закрыты (plural).
- masculine: закрыт
- feminine: закрыта
- neuter: закрыто
- plural: закрыты

So Russian maintains gender and number agreement between the subject and the short-form adjective/participle.

Could we say «когда все окна закрываются» instead of «когда все окна закрыты»? What would change?

Yes, but the meaning would shift:

«Когда все окна закрываются» – “when all the windows are being closed / close (habitually).”
- Focuses on the action/process of closing.
- Sounds like talking about a regular event, like “At 10 p.m., when all the windows close…”
«Когда все окна закрыты» – “when all the windows are closed.”
- Focuses on the resulting state: we don’t care who closed them, only that they are closed.

In the original sentence, the point is: when the world is quiet and closed off, then my head is free. That’s more naturally expressed with the state form (закрыты) rather than the process (закрываются).

Why is there a comma before «моя голова наконец свободна…»? How are the clauses structured?

The sentence has a subordinate clause followed by a main clause:

Когда все окна уже закрыты и улица пуста,
- Introduced by когда (“when”).
- Contains two parts joined by и:
  - все окна уже закрыты
  - улица пуста
моя голова наконец свободна от лишних мыслей.
- Main clause: what happens when the condition is met.

Russian punctuation rule: a subordinate clause introduced by a conjunction like когда is usually separated by a comma from the main clause, even if the subordinate clause comes first.

So the comma marks the border:

Когда … и …, моя голова … – “When … and …, my head …”