Learn Hardcore Russian: Теперь, когда гроза давно прошла, мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим. - Now, when the storm has long passed, the wet port seems calm and quiet.

In Russian it’s very natural to combine a present-time adverb like теперь (“now”) with a past tense verb to show a contrast between the current situation and something that happened earlier.

Теперь focuses us on the situation now.
когда гроза давно прошла literally: “when the storm long ago passed” = “now that the storm has long since passed”.

So the structure is:
Теперь, когда X уже произошло, Y…
“Now that X has already happened, Y…”

English often uses a present perfect (“has passed”), but Russian simply uses the past tense for a completed action: гроза прошла.

What is the role of когда here? Is it a question word or a conjunction?

Here когда is a subordinating conjunction, not a question word. It introduces a time clause:

когда гроза давно прошла = “when the storm has long since passed / now that the storm has long since passed”.

So the structure is:

Main clause: Теперь … мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим.
Subordinate clause: когда гроза давно прошла

The subordinate clause describes the time/situation in which the main clause is true.

Why is it гроза давно прошла and not something like гроза давно проходила?

The verb пройти (perfective) in прошла shows a completed, one-time event: the storm came and went; it’s over.

гроза прошла – “the storm passed / is over” (completed, result)
гроза проходила – past imperfective, would suggest a process or a repeated/typical situation, like “the storm was passing / used to pass”. That doesn’t fit here, because we’re talking about one specific storm that is now finished.

Давно adds the nuance “a long time ago / long since”, reinforcing that this completed action is now clearly in the past.

Why is the verb прошла feminine? I thought verbs don’t change gender in English.

In Russian, past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is гроза (“storm”).
гроза is a feminine noun (ends in -а, and is grammatically feminine).
The past tense of пройти for feminine singular is прошла.

Compare:

гроза прошла – the storm (fem.) passed.
дождь прошёл – the rain (masc.) passed.
бури прошли – the storms (plural) passed.

What exactly does давно mean here? “For a long time” or “a long time ago”?

In this sentence, давно means “a long time ago” / “long since”.

гроза давно прошла ≈ “the storm passed a long time ago” or “the storm has long since passed”.

“For a long time” (duration up to now) is usually expressed differently, often with imperfective verbs, e.g.:

Я давно жду – “I have been waiting for a long time.”

Here, because we have a completed action (прошла) that is clearly in the past, давно is “long ago / long since”, not “for a long time”.

Why is there a comma after Теперь and another after прошла?

The commas mark off the subordinate clause introduced by когда:

Main clause: Теперь … мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим.
Subordinate clause: когда гроза давно прошла

The structure is:

Теперь, [когда гроза давно прошла], мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим.

So:

Comma before когда: shows we are starting the subordinate clause.
Comma after прошла: closes that clause.

The word Теперь is outside the clause and is set off by the first comma for clarity.

Why is it мокрый порт and not something like порт мокрый or порт есть мокрый?

Russian normally puts adjectives before nouns:
- мокрый порт = “wet port”.
In the present tense, Russian usually omits the verb “to be” (быть):
- English: “The port is wet.”
- Russian: Порт мокрый. (literally: “Port wet.”)

In this sentence, мокрый порт acts as the subject group:

мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим
“the wet port seems calm and quiet”

You could say порт мокрый in a different context to emphasize the predicate (“The port is wet”), but here the phrase “wet port” is simply a description attached to the subject.

What does кажется mean here, and why not just say “is calm and quiet”?

Кажется is the verb казаться, meaning “to seem / to appear (to be)”:

порт кажется спокойным и тихим
“the port seems calm and quiet” / “the port appears calm and quiet”

Using кажется adds the nuance that:

This is how the port looks/feels to an observer, not an objective statement like a definition.
It also contrasts nicely with the earlier storm: after all that chaos, now it seems so calm.

If you said:

Порт спокойный и тихий. – “The port is calm and quiet.” (simple statement of fact)

With кажется, it’s more about perception than bare fact.

Why are спокойным and тихим in the instrumental case instead of nominative (like спокойный, тихий)?

With verbs like быть (to be), становиться / стать (to become), and казаться (to seem), Russian often uses the instrumental case for a predicative description:

порт кажется спокойным и тихим
calm and quiet describes the state the port seems to be in, so the adjectives go into instrumental masculine singular:
- спокойным
- тихим

This is a standard pattern:

Он был уставшим. – He was tired.
Она стала врачом. – She became a doctor.
Город кажется пустым. – The city seems empty.

Using the nominative (спокойный, тихий) here would sound incorrect with кажется in modern standard Russian.

How do спокойным and тихим agree with порт grammatically?

They agree in:

Gender: порт is masculine → adjectives masculine.
Number: порт is singular → adjectives singular.
Case: with кажется, the predicative adjectives are in the instrumental case → -ым / -им endings.

So:

порт – masculine singular
спокойным – masculine singular instrumental (from спокойный)
тихим – masculine singular instrumental (from тихий)

This “adjectives agree with the noun they describe” rule is very consistent in Russian.

Can I change the word order? For example, say Теперь мокрый порт кажется тихим и спокойным or Мокрый порт теперь кажется спокойным и тихим?

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, especially with adverbs and multiple adjectives:

Теперь мокрый порт кажется спокойным и тихим.
Мокрый порт теперь кажется спокойным и тихим.
Теперь, когда гроза давно прошла, порт кажется мокрым, спокойным и тихим.
Теперь, когда гроза давно прошла, мокрый порт кажется тихим и спокойным.

All of these are grammatically correct; the differences are mostly about rhythm and emphasis:

Putting теперь first highlights the time contrast: Now, in contrast to earlier.
Switching спокойным и тихим ↔ тихим и спокойным doesn’t change the meaning; it just feels slightly different stylistically, like saying “calm and quiet” vs. “quiet and calm” in English.