Из-за сквозняка у меня утром заболело горло.

Here из-за means because of or due to.

So:

• из-за сквозняка = because of the draft

It is a fixed Russian preposition and is normally written with a hyphen: из-за.

A useful extra point: из-за often introduces a cause, especially one with a slightly negative result:

• из-за дождя = because of the rain
• из-за ошибки = because of the mistake

So it fits well with getting a sore throat.

Because из-за requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• сквозняк = draft, draught

After из-за, it changes to the genitive singular:

• из-за сквозняка

This is a very common pattern:

• из-за ветра = because of the wind
• из-за шума = because of the noise
• из-за болезни = because of illness

Сквозняк means a draft or draught: a current of cold air moving through a room, often from an open window or door.

In Russian-speaking culture, сквозняк is very commonly blamed for colds, sore throats, neck pain, and similar problems. So this sentence sounds completely natural.

Russian often uses у + genitive to talk about a person’s physical condition, especially with body parts or symptoms.

So:

• у меня заболело горло literally means something like
• at me, the throat started to hurt

In natural English, of course, that becomes:

• my throat started to hurt
• I got a sore throat

This pattern is very common:

• У меня болит голова. = My head hurts / I have a headache.
• У меня замёрзли руки. = My hands got cold.
• У меня поднялась температура. = I got a fever.

Using мне would suggest a different structure and would not be the normal way to say this sentence.

Because the verb agrees with горло, and горло is neuter singular.

So in the past tense:

• masculine: заболел
• feminine: заболела
• neuter: заболело
• plural: заболели

Here the grammatical subject is:

• горло = throat

Since горло is neuter, the verb is:

• горло заболело

Even though English often focuses on the person (I got a sore throat), Russian grammar here focuses on the body part (the throat started hurting).

This is an important aspect pair:

• болеть = to hurt, to ache, to be in pain
• заболеть = to start hurting; to become ill

In this sentence, заболело means the pain began.

So:

• У меня утром болело горло. = My throat was hurting in the morning.
  (describes the state)

• У меня утром заболело горло. = My throat started hurting in the morning / I got a sore throat in the morning.
  (focuses on the beginning)

So the prefix за- often gives the idea of starting.

Утром is the instrumental case of утро and is used adverbially to mean in the morning.

This is a common time expression in Russian:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime / during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So no preposition is needed here.

You can think of утром as a fixed adverb-like form meaning in the morning.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

This version puts the cause first:

• Из-за сквозняка = because of the draft

Then it gives the experiencer and time:

• у меня утром

Then the main event:

• заболело горло

Other orders are also possible, for example:

• У меня утром заболело горло из-за сквозняка.
• У меня из-за сквозняка утром заболело горло.

The meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis shifts a little.

This sentence starts with Из-за сквозняка because the speaker may be emphasizing the cause.

Grammatically, yes.

In:

• у меня утром заболело горло

the noun горло is what the verb agrees with, so it functions as the grammatical subject.

Meanwhile:

• у меня marks the person affected

This is a structure that often feels unusual to English speakers, because English would usually make the person the subject:

• I got a sore throat
• My throat started to hurt

Russian often allows body parts or symptoms to be the grammatical subject instead.

Yes, заболеть can mean either:

1. to become ill
2. to start hurting

The meaning depends on the subject.

For example:

• Я заболел. = I got sick.
• Ребёнок заболел. = The child got sick.

But:

• Голова заболела. = The head started hurting.
• Спина заболела. = The back started hurting.
• Горло заболело. = The throat started hurting.

Since the subject here is горло, the meaning is clearly started hurting, not became ill.

Yes, absolutely.

• У меня болит горло. = My throat hurts / I have a sore throat.
• У меня заболело горло. = My throat started to hurt / I got a sore throat.

The difference is:

• болит describes the current state
• заболело describes the beginning of that state

So if you want to report the moment it began, заболело is better. If you simply want to describe the symptom, болит is more neutral.

Yes. Putting Из-за сквозняка first highlights the reason right away.

It can sound a bit like:

• Because of that draft, my throat started hurting in the morning.

So the speaker may be stressing the cause, perhaps blaming the draft.

Russian often moves important or contrastive information toward the beginning of the sentence.

Sometimes от сквозняка is also possible in Russian, and it can mean something like from the draft.

However, in this sentence из-за сквозняка is very natural because it clearly introduces the cause.

A rough distinction:

• из-за = because of, due to
• от = from, as a result of

Both can sometimes work with causes, but из-за сквозняка is an especially straightforward and idiomatic choice here.