Вокруг тихо, и мне хочется посидеть здесь.

It is quiet all around, and I feel like sitting here for a while.

Breakdown of Вокруг тихо, и мне хочется посидеть здесь.

• и: and
• мне: me
• тихо: quiet
• здесь: here

Questions & Answers about Вокруг тихо, и мне хочется посидеть здесь.

Why is there no verb in Вокруг тихо?

In Russian, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.

So Вокруг тихо literally feels like:

Around, quiet

but in natural English it means:

It’s quiet around here or It’s quiet all around.

Russian does this very often:

• Здесь тепло = It’s warm here
• Дома спокойно = It’s calm at home
• В комнате темно = It’s dark in the room

So there is no missing word that you have to add in normal present-tense Russian.

What does вокруг mean here?

Here вокруг is being used as an adverb, meaning something like:

• around
• all around
• in the surroundings
• around here

In other contexts, вокруг can also be a preposition, in which case it is followed by a noun in the genitive:

• вокруг дома = around the house
• вокруг озера = around the lake

But in Вокруг тихо, there is no noun after it, so it works adverbially.

Why is it тихо and not тихий or тихая?