На улице шёл дождь, поэтому мы прыгали через скакалку и делали упражнения на турнике в зале.

It was raining outside, so we jumped rope and did exercises on the pull-up bar in the gym.

Breakdown of На улице шёл дождь, поэтому мы прыгали через скакалку и делали упражнения на турнике в зале.

• в: in
• и: and
• на: on
• улица: the street

Questions & Answers about На улице шёл дождь, поэтому мы прыгали через скакалку и делали упражнения на турнике в зале.

What does на улице mean here? Why is it not в улице?

Here на улице means outside or outdoors.

Russian often uses на улице for the general outdoor environment:

• На улице холодно = It’s cold outside.
• На улице шёл дождь = It was raining outside.

В улице is not used for this meaning. The preposition в usually means being inside something enclosed, while улица is thought of as an open public space, so Russian uses на.

Why does Russian say шёл дождь? It literally looks like the rain was walking.

That is a normal Russian idiom. The verb идти is commonly used with weather, especially precipitation:

• идёт дождь = it’s raining
• идёт снег = it’s snowing

So шёл дождь simply means it was raining or rain was falling. It does not sound strange to a Russian speaker.

Why is it шёл, not шла or шло?