Успей закрыть окно, прежде чем начнётся град.

Close the window in time before the hail starts.

Breakdown of Успей закрыть окно, прежде чем начнётся град.

• окно: the window
• закрыть: to close
• град: the hail
• прежде чем: before
• начаться: to start
• успеть: to make it (in time)

Questions & Answers about Успей закрыть окно, прежде чем начнётся град.

Why does the sentence start with Успей? What does that verb form mean?

Успей is the imperative (command/request form) of the perfective verb успеть (to manage to do something in time / to succeed in doing something before it’s too late).
So Успей закрыть окно means (Make sure you) manage to close the window (in time)—it implies urgency and a deadline.

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Why is it Успей (perfective) and not Успевай?

Russian often uses:

• perfective imperative for a single, completed result: Успей закрыть окно = get it done (before a deadline)
• imperfective imperative for process/repetition/ongoing habit: Успевай is less natural here and would sound like keep managing to…, or could be used in contexts like Успевай записывать (keep up and write it down).

Here you need one completed action (the window ends up closed), so Успей fits best.

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Why is the second verb закрыть in the infinitive?

After успеть, Russian normally uses an infinitive to name the action you manage to do:

• успеть + infinitive: успеть закрыть, успеть уйти, успеть позвонить.

So Успей закрыть is a standard structure: manage to close.

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Why is it закрыть окно and not закрыть окном or something else? What case is окно?

Окно is in the accusative case because it’s the direct object of закрыть (to close what?).
For inanimate neuter nouns like окно, the accusative looks the same as the nominative: окно.

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What does прежде чем mean grammatically, and why is there a comma?

прежде чем means before and introduces a subordinate clause. Russian punctuation rules require a comma before such clauses:

• Успей закрыть окно, прежде чем…
  That comma is basically the Russian equivalent of separating the main clause from the before-clause.

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Why is it начнётся (future) after прежде чем? In English we say “before it starts,” not “before it will start.”

Russian commonly uses the future tense after прежде чем when the starting action is in the future relative to the command:

• прежде чем начнётся = before it starts (later)

Even though English uses present tense here, Russian uses future because it’s a real future event.

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Why is начнётся perfective? Could it be начинается?

начнётся is the perfective future of начаться (to begin), focusing on the moment of starting (a single event). That matches the idea of a clear boundary: close the window before the hail begins.

прежде чем начинается is possible but usually refers more to a regular/typical situation or a more “descriptive” present (e.g., before the show starts (as a rule)). In a конкретная upcoming event, начнётся is most natural.

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What is the -ся in начнётся?

The verb is начаться (with -ся), which is the “intransitive” counterpart of начать:

• начать (что?) = to start something (transitive)
• начаться = to start / to begin (by itself) (intransitive)

Here, the hail is the thing that begins, so Russian uses начаться → начнётся.

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Why is there a soft sign in начнётся and how is it pronounced?

The spelling is начнётся because the ending is -ётся (a common 3rd person singular future/present ending with ё). The soft sign ь signals that the preceding н is “softened” (palatalized).

Pronunciation tip:

• начнётся is pronounced roughly like nach-NYOT-sya (stress on ё).

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What does град mean here? Could it be “a city” like город?

Here град means hail (ice pellets falling from the sky).
It can also appear in old-fashioned or poetic language meaning “city” (like in some place names), but in everyday modern Russian, град most commonly means hail, especially in a weather context.

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Is the subject “you” missing? How does Russian handle that?

Yes—Russian usually omits the subject pronoun when it’s clear from the verb ending.
Успей already tells you it’s you (singular informal) being addressed.

If you add it, it becomes more emphatic:

• Ты успей закрыть окно… (sounds insistent / emotional)

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Could this be said more politely or more formally?

Yes. For formal/polite you, use the plural/polite imperative:

• Успейте закрыть окно, прежде чем начнётся град.

You could also soften it with пожалуйста:

• Успей(те), пожалуйста, закрыть окно…