Questions & Answers about Опасно идти по шоссе ночью.
Why is there no subject (like It is dangerous...) in Russian?
Russian often uses impersonal sentences where no explicit subject is needed.
In Опасно идти по шоссе ночью., the idea of it is understood automatically, so Russian simply states Опасно + infinitive (идти) = It’s dangerous to walk/go....
What part of speech is опасно here? Is it an adverb?
In this sentence опасно functions as a predicative word (often taught as a “word of state” or “category of state”). Formally it looks like:
- the short form neuter of the adjective опасный (опасно), but in usage it behaves like It is dangerous / It’s dangerous (to...).
You’ll see the same pattern in: Трудно понять., Полезно читать., Скучно одному.
Why is идти in the infinitive?
After words like опасно, трудно, легко, приятно, полезно, Russian commonly uses an infinitive to name the action that has the property:
- Опасно (dangerous) + идти (to go/to walk)
So the grammar is basically: [evaluation] + [action in infinitive].