Learn Hardcore Russian: Если идёт дождь, я не выхожу из дома и читаю журнал. - If it is raining, I don’t leave the house and read a magazine.

Идёт дождь is the standard idiom for “it’s raining.” Russian often describes weather using a verb of movement or “going,” and the noun (дождь) is the grammatical subject. You can also hear дождь идёт (same meaning, different word order).

Is Если идёт дождь more like “if it’s raining” or “when it’s raining”?

Grammatically it’s “if,” but in context it often describes a repeated/habitual situation, so in natural English it can sound like “when(ever) it’s raining.”
If you want “when” explicitly, Russian commonly uses когда: Когда идёт дождь, я… (more “when/whenever” than “if”).

Why is there a comma after дождь?

Because Если идёт дождь is a subordinate clause (condition), and Russian separates it from the main clause with a comma:
Если … , я …
If you reverse the order, you still use a comma: Я не выхожу из дома и читаю журнал, если идёт дождь.

Why is the verb идёт in the present tense—does it mean “right now”?

Present tense in Russian can mean: 1) right now (it’s raining at this moment), or
2) a general/habitual situation (whenever it rains).
Here, together with Если…, it most naturally reads as a habit: “If/When it rains, I don’t go out…”

Why doesn’t Russian use будет (future) after если?

In Russian, after если (and also когда in time clauses), you typically do not use the future tense to mean future. Russian often uses present forms for future meaning in these subordinate clauses.
Example: Если пойдёт дождь, я не выйду… is also possible, but that’s a different pattern (see next question).

What’s the difference between я не выхожу and я не выйду here?

я не выхожу (из дома) = imperfective, usually habitual/repeated: “I don’t go out (in such situations).”
я не выйду (из дома) = perfective, usually a single future decision/result: “I won’t go out (this time / in that case).”

So:

Habit: Если идёт дождь, я не выхожу…
One конкретный случай: Если пойдёт дождь, я не выйду…

Why is it выхожу, not выходу?

The verb is выходить (imperfective). Its я-form is выхожу due to a common consonant alternation and spelling pattern in Russian conjugation: -д- changes and the stress/consonant pattern yields выхожу. It’s just an irregular-looking but standard conjugation.

What case is из дома, and why?

из (“out of/from”) requires the genitive case.
дом (house) → genitive singular дома.
So выхожу из дома = “I go out of the house / I leave home.”

Why is it из дома and not из дом or из доме?

из дом is ungrammatical because из needs genitive.
из доме is also wrong because доме is prepositional/locative, used after в/на for location (e.g., в доме = “in the house”).
For “from/out of,” you need genitive: из дома.

Does я не выхожу из дома mean “I don’t leave home” or “I don’t go outside”?

It can mean either, depending on context:

Literally: “I don’t leave the house.”
Idiomatically: “I don’t go out (I stay at home).”
If you want to emphasize “outside,” you can say я не выхожу на улицу (“I don’t go out onto the street/outside”).

How does и work here? Is it “and” or “then”?

и is “and,” joining two actions in the main clause:
я не выхожу … и читаю журнал = “I don’t go out … and (I) read a magazine.”
In context it can feel like “and instead I read…,” but Russian still uses и for that. If you want a stronger “instead,” you can use а: …я не выхожу из дома, а читаю журнал.

Why is я only written once? Should it be repeated before читаю?

Russian often omits repeating the subject pronoun when it’s clearly the same subject. So я applies to both verbs: (я) не выхожу … и (я) читаю…
Repeating я is possible for emphasis or contrast, but not necessary.

Why is журнал in that form? What case is it?

читать takes a direct object in the accusative case. For an inanimate masculine noun like журнал, the accusative looks the same as the nominative: журнал.
So читаю журнал = “I read a magazine.”

Could this sentence mean “If it rains, I don’t go out of the house and I read the magazine (a specific one)”?

Yes, Russian doesn’t force the “a/the” distinction. читаю журнал can mean “I read a magazine” (some magazine) or “I read the magazine” (a known one). Context clarifies. If you want to stress “some kind of magazine,” you might add какой-нибудь: читаю какой-нибудь журнал.

Is the word order fixed, or can it be changed?

It’s flexible. Common variants include:

Если идёт дождь, я не выхожу из дома и читаю журнал. (neutral)
Если дождь идёт, я… (also fine)
Я не выхожу из дома и читаю журнал, если идёт дождь. (condition added at the end)

Word order changes emphasis more than basic meaning.