Learn Hardcore Russian: Зимой ей обычно не хочется выходить на холодную террасу, и она пьёт чай дома. - In winter she usually doesn’t feel like going out to the cold terrace and drinks tea at home.

The verb хочется here is used in an impersonal construction that literally means “to someone it is not wanted / one doesn’t feel like”. In Russian, in this pattern the person is in the dative:

Ей не хочется… – She doesn’t feel like… (literally: To her, it is not wanted…)
Мне не хочется… – I don’t feel like… (To me…)
Им не хочется… – They don’t feel like… (To them…)

If you used она, you’d have to use a different verb form: она не хочет (personal construction, nominative subject).

What exactly is не хочется? Is it just “doesn’t want”?

Не хочется is 3rd person singular neuter of хотеться, used impersonally.

Nuance:

не хочет = doesn’t want (more direct, clear will or decision)
не хочется = doesn’t feel like / has no desire to (more about mood, inclination)

So ей не хочется выходить… sounds softer and more emotional than она не хочет выходить…. It implies lack of desire rather than a firm decision.

What is the difference between ей не хочется выходить and она не хочет выходить?

Both can describe roughly the same situation, but the tone is different:

Ей не хочется выходить…
- Impersonal, dative (ей).
- Emphasizes inner feeling, laziness, mood.
- Softer, less categorical.
Она не хочет выходить…
- Personal, nominative (она).
- Emphasizes conscious will/decision.
- Sounds more firm or even stubborn.

In this sentence, because it’s about a regular winter mood (“usually”), the softer ей обычно не хочется… is very natural.

Why is it выходить, not выйти, after не хочется?

Russian uses imperfective infinitive (выходить) when talking about:

General actions,
Habits,
Processes, not single completed events.

Here we have обычно (“usually”), so it’s about a repeated, typical situation in winter.

Ей обычно не хочется выходить… = she generally doesn’t feel like going out (in general).

Ей обычно не хочется выйти… would be unusual here; выйти is perfective and would refer to one specific act of going out, which doesn’t match обычно in this context.

Why is it на холодную террасу and not на холодной террасе?

Preposition на can take either accusative or prepositional case:

на
- accusative = direction, motion onto / to
  - на террасу – onto the terrace / to the terrace
на
- prepositional = location, being on something
  - на террасе – on the terrace (already there)

Here the verb is выходить (go out, come out) – a verb of motion, so we need the direction case: на холодную террасу (accusative).

If you said она сидит на холодной террасе, you’d use prepositional, because you’re describing location, not movement.

What case is холодную террасу, and why does it look like that?

Терраса is a feminine noun (ending in -а).
In the sentence, террасу is:

Singular
Feminine
Accusative (because it’s the destination of motion: выходить на…)

The adjective холодную agrees with террасу in gender, number, and case:

Nominative: холодная терраса
Accusative: холодную террасу

So на холодную террасу = onto a cold terrace / onto the cold terrace.

Why is Зимой used for “in winter”, and what form is that?

Зимой is the instrumental singular of зима (“winter”), but in practice it functions almost like an adverb meaning “in (the) winter / during winter”.

Russian commonly uses the instrumental this way for seasons:

зимой – in winter
летом – in summer
весной – in spring
осенью – in autumn / fall

So зимой ей обычно не хочется… literally: in winter, to her it is usually not wanted…

Can the word order be changed, for example to Обычно зимой ей не хочется…? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, word order in Russian is flexible, and you can say:

Зимой ей обычно не хочется…
Обычно зимой ей не хочется…
Ей зимой обычно не хочется…

The basic meaning doesn’t change. Word order mostly affects:

What is emphasized / topical:
- Starting with зимой emphasizes the time frame (“as for winter…”).
- Starting with ей would emphasize her more.
Rhythm and style.

All of these are natural and grammatical in neutral context.

Why is there a comma before и in …, и она пьёт чай дома?

Russian punctuation treats this as two independent clauses joined by и:

Зимой ей обычно не хочется выходить на холодную террасу
она пьёт чай дома

When и connects two full clauses (each with its own subject and predicate), Russian normally puts a comma before и:

… не хочется выходить на холодную террасу, и она пьёт чай дома.

If you were just connecting two verbs with the same subject inside one clause, there would be no comma:

Она сидит и пьёт чай. (same subject, one clause → no comma)

Why is it пьёт чай, not a form with a prefix like выпьет чай?

Пить / пьёт is imperfective; выпить / выпьет is perfective.

пьёт чай – is drinking / drinks tea (process, habit, or repeated action)
выпьет чай – will drink up (finish) a tea (one complete act)

The sentence describes what she usually does in that situation (habit), so Russian uses the imperfective:

… и она пьёт чай дома. – she usually drinks tea at home.

Using выпивает чай or выпьет чай would focus on finishing one portion of tea, which doesn’t fit the general-habit meaning as naturally.

What does дома mean exactly? How is it different from в доме?

Both relate to дом (“house, home”), but they’re used differently:

дома (indeclinable adverb here) = at home
- Она пьёт чай дома. – She drinks tea at home (i.e., not outside).
в доме (prepositional case) = in the house / inside the building
- Она пьёт чай в доме. – She drinks tea in the house (as opposed to in the yard, in the garden, etc.).

In this sentence, дома contrasts with на террасе: outside vs. at home.

Why are there no words like “the” or “a” before холодную террасу and чай?

Russian has no articles (no “a/an/the”). Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from:

Context
Word order
Sometimes stress and intonation

So холодную террасу can mean:

the cold terrace (the one we know about),
or a cold terrace (introducing it for the first time),

depending on context.
Similarly, пьёт чай can be understood as drinks tea / drinks some tea / drinks the tea—Russian doesn’t mark the difference explicitly.

Where is the stress in the key words of this sentence?

Stress pattern (stressed syllable in caps in Latin transcription):

Зимой – зиМОй (zi-MOY)
ей – ей (one syllable: yey)
обычно – оБЫчно (a-BYCH-na)
хочется – ХОчется (HO-che-tsa)
выходить – выходИть (vy-kha-DEET)
холодную – хоЛОДную (kha-LOD-nu-yu)
террасу – теРАСсу (te-RA-su)
она – оНА (a-NA)
пьёт – пьЁт (pyOT)
дома – ДОма (DO-ma)

Correct stress is crucial in Russian; misplacing it can make speech much harder to understand, even if the grammar is right.