Breakdown of Я люблю слушать гром, когда гроза далеко и мне не страшно.
Questions & Answers about Я люблю слушать гром, когда гроза далеко и мне не страшно.
In Russian, when you like doing something, you almost always use люблю + infinitive:
- Я люблю слушать гром. – I like to listen to thunder / I like listening to thunder.
- Я люблю читать. – I like reading.
- Я люблю плавать. – I like swimming.
Using a noun like «люблю гром» would mean “I love thunder (as a thing, in general)”, not “I love listening to thunder.”
The abstract noun «слушание» exists but sounds technical or overly formal here; Russians almost always use a verb in the infinitive instead.
Гром is masculine, in the accusative singular here, because it’s the direct object of the verb слушать (to listen to):
- Я люблю слушать что? гром.
For inanimate masculine nouns like гром, the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative singular:
- Nominative: гром (subject) – Гром громкий. – The thunder is loud.
- Accusative: гром (object) – Я слушаю гром. – I listen to the thunder.
You’d use грома in other cases (e.g. genitive: нет грома – there is no thunder), but not as a direct object here.
They refer to related but different things:
- Гром – thunder, the sound you hear.
- Гроза – a thunderstorm, the entire weather phenomenon (clouds, lightning, thunder, rain, etc.).
In the sentence:
- слушать гром – to listen to the sound of thunder,
- когда гроза далеко – when the storm itself is far away.
So the speaker enjoys the sound (гром) as long as the actual storm (гроза) is far and not frightening.
In Russian, a clause introduced by когда (when) is a subordinate clause, and it’s normally separated from the main clause by a comma.
- Main clause: Я люблю слушать гром.
- Subordinate clause: когда гроза далеко и мне не страшно.
So you must write:
- Я люблю слушать гром, когда гроза далеко и мне не страшно.
This is similar to English comma use in: “I like to listen to thunder, when the storm is far away and I’m not scared.” (although in English the comma can be optional or even avoided, in Russian it is required here).
In Russian, the verb быть (to be) is usually omitted in the present tense when linking a subject to a predicate:
- English: The storm *is far away.*
- Russian: Гроза далеко. (literally “Storm far-away.”)
If you insert есть – гроза есть далеко – it sounds unusual or unnatural here. Есть as “is/are” is mostly:
- implied and omitted in the present, or
- used for existence: Там есть гроза. – There is a storm there.
So «когда гроза далеко» is the normal, grammatical way to say “when the storm is far away.”
Both далеко and вдали can express “far away,” but they’re used a bit differently:
Далеко – an adverb, very common and neutral:
- Гроза далеко. – The storm is far away.
- Он живёт далеко. – He lives far away.
Вдали – literally “in the distance”, slightly more literary/visual:
- Гроза вдали. – The storm is in the distance.
- Вдали сверкала молния. – Lightning flashed in the distance.
You could say когда гроза вдали, and it would still be correct, but далеко is more neutral and fully natural in everyday speech.
Мне не страшно literally means “to me, it is not scary” → “I’m not scared / I don’t feel scared.”
- Мне – dative of я (to me).
- страшно – a predicative adverb meaning “it is scary / (someone) feels scared.”
Russian often uses a dative + predicative construction to talk about feelings or states:
- Мне страшно. – I am scared.
- Мне холодно. – I am cold.
- Мне скучно. – I am bored.
- Мне грустно. – I am sad.
Negation:
- Мне не страшно. – I am not scared.
So grammatically it’s an impersonal sentence: there is no grammatical subject like “I”; instead, the feeling is described as something that is (not) happening “to me.”
Both can mean “I’m not scared / I’m not afraid,” but they have slightly different nuances:
Мне не страшно.
- Literally: “To me, it’s not scary.”
- Focuses on your current emotional state.
- Very common in casual speech, sounds a bit softer.
Я не боюсь.
- Literally: “I am not afraid.”
- Uses the verb бояться (to fear, to be afraid).
- Can sound more active or resolute, like “I’m not afraid (I’m brave / I refuse to be scared).”
In the given sentence, мне не страшно fits better because it describes a comfortable emotional state when the storm is far away.
«…и я не боюсь» is not wrong; it’s grammatically correct and understandable:
- Я люблю слушать гром, когда гроза далеко и я не боюсь.
However:
«Мне не страшно» is more idiomatic for describing how something feels:
- It sounds more like a natural, emotional reaction to the situation.
The two clauses in Russian align well in form:
- Гроза далеко – the storm is far.
- (Мне) не страшно – (to me) it’s not scary.
So the original «и мне не страшно» sounds more natural and slightly softer in tone.
In Russian, the present tense is normally used to talk about:
- actions happening now: Я слушаю гром. – I am listening to thunder.
- regular actions or general preferences: Я люблю слушать гром. – I like listening to thunder (in general).
So люблю in the present simple is the standard way to express a general like/dislike, just like English “I like” or “I love”:
- Я люблю кофе. – I like coffee.
- Я люблю ходить в кино. – I like going to the cinema.
Слушать and послушать are different aspects of the same verb:
- слушать – imperfective (process, duration, repeated actions).
- послушать – perfective (a complete, one-time action: “listen for a while / listen once”).
When you talk about things you generally like doing, you almost always use the imperfective infinitive:
- Я люблю слушать музыку. – I like listening to music.
- Я люблю смотреть фильмы. – I like watching movies.
So «Я люблю послушать гром» would sound more like “I like to have a (little) listen to thunder (now and then)” – possible in some contexts, but «Я люблю слушать гром» is the normal, neutral way to express a general habit or preference.
You could say «когда далеко гроза», and it would still be understandable, but it sounds a bit unusual or poetic. The most natural, neutral word order is:
- когда гроза далеко
Russian word order is relatively flexible, but:
- Subject + predicate/adverb (гроза далеко) is the default:
- Гроза далеко.
Reversing to далеко гроза often gives it a more poetic or emphatic tone, not needed here. So the original word order is preferred in standard speech and writing.
In «когда гроза далеко», гроза is the subject of the clause:
- Что далеко? гроза. – What is far away? The storm.
So гроза is in the nominative singular form.
About stress:
- The word is pronounced гро-за́ (stress on the second syllable) in all common cases in the singular:
- Nominative: гроза́
- Accusative: грозу́
- Genitive: грозы́, etc.
In writing, you normally don’t mark stress, but you should know it’s гро-за́, not гра́-оза or anything else.