Если на улице ветрено, мама повязывает платок и идёт в магазин.

Russian often leaves out to be in the present tense.

So на улице ветрено literally looks like outside windy, but it means it is windy outside.

A few useful points:

• на улице = outside / outdoors / in the street
• ветрено = windy
• In present-tense statements like this, Russian normally does not use есть.

Compare:

• На улице холодно. = It’s cold outside.
• На улице темно. = It’s dark outside.

So the sentence is completely normal without any word for is.

Ветрено is a predicate word meaning windy. In grammar books, words like this are often treated as adverbs or as part of the category of state.

What matters for a learner is how it behaves:

• You use it in impersonal sentences.
• It does not agree with a noun.
• It describes the general condition of the environment.

So Russian says:

• На улице ветрено. = It’s windy outside.

not something like:

• улица ветреная unless you specifically mean the street is windy as an adjective describing улица.

That is why ветрено is used here, not ветреная.

Because если introduces a subordinate clause: if it’s windy outside.

Russian normally puts a comma between the if-clause and the main clause:

• Если на улице ветрено, мама повязывает платок и идёт в магазин.

This is very similar to English:

• If it’s windy outside, Mom ties on a scarf and goes to the store.

Even if the если clause comes first, Russian still uses the comma.

Its basic meaning is if, but in real usage it can sometimes feel close to when(ever), especially in habitual situations.

In this sentence, the meaning is something like:

• If / whenever it’s windy outside, Mom puts on a headscarf and goes to the store.

Because the rest of the sentence is in the present tense and describes a repeated, typical action, English might naturally translate it with whenever.

So:

• если = fundamentally if
• in context, it can sound like whenever

Because мама is the subject of the main clause.

In мама повязывает платок и идёт в магазин:

• мама = who does the actions
• повязывает = ties on
• идёт = goes

So мама stays in the nominative.

A learner may notice that мама ends in -а, which often looks feminine and can resemble other case endings, but here it is simply nominative singular.

Платок is the direct object of повязывает, so it is in the accusative case.

But for many inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular is the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: платок
• accusative: платок

That is why the form does not change.

Compare with a feminine noun, where you would see the accusative more clearly:

• мама читает книгу
• книга → книгу

But with платок, nominative and accusative look the same.

Повязывает платок means something like ties on a scarf / ties a headscarf around herself.

This verb is more specific than надевает.

• надевать / надеть = to put on clothing in a general sense
• повязывать / повязать = to tie on, wrap on

A платок is often a scarf or headscarf that is tied, so повязывает is a natural choice.

So the sentence suggests not just putting it on, but specifically tying it in place.

Because the sentence describes a habitual or repeated action.

Russian often uses the present tense of the imperfective to talk about things that happen regularly:

• Если на улице ветрено, мама повязывает платок...
• If it’s windy outside, Mom ties on a scarf...

If you used the perfective here, it would not work as a normal present-tense habitual statement, because Russian perfective verbs do not have a true present meaning like English does.

So повязывает is natural because it describes what she generally does in that situation.

This is about verbs of motion.

• идти = to go on foot in one direction, one trip
• ходить = to go on foot in general, repeatedly, or back and forth

Here, идёт в магазин presents the action as a specific directed trip to the store each time the situation happens.

So the pattern is:

• it’s windy outside
• Mom ties on a scarf
• then she goes to the store

Using ходит в магазин would shift the meaning toward a general habit of going to the store, rather than this single directed action in the sequence.

Because Russian can use a present-tense form like идёт to describe what happens each time in a repeated situation.

So although идёт usually refers to a single directed movement, in a sentence like this it means:

• whenever this happens, she goes to the store

In other words, the repetition belongs to the whole pattern, while идёт still describes the individual trip as a one-direction action.

This is a very common Russian way of speaking.

Because в with the accusative often shows motion into a place.

So:

• идти в магазин = to go to the store
• literally, to go into the store

This is the normal expression in Russian.

Compare:

• в школу = to school
• в парк = to the park
• в дом = into the house

After verbs of motion, в + accusative and на + accusative are both possible, but the choice depends on the noun:

• в магазин
• на работу
• на почту
• в университет

You simply learn which preposition goes with which place.

The correct spelling is идёт from идти.

In everyday Russian writing, you will often see е instead of ё, so many texts write:

• идет

But the pronunciation is still идёт, and that is the fully correct spelling.

For learners, it is helpful to remember:

• идёт = pronounced with yo
• many printed or typed texts may omit the dots and write идет

Literally, на улице means on the street or in the street.

But very often in Russian it is used idiomatically to mean outside / outdoors, especially when talking about weather or general outdoor conditions.

So:

• На улице холодно. = It’s cold outside.
• На улице дождь. = It’s raining / There’s rain outside.
• На улице ветрено. = It’s windy outside.

Even though the literal image is in the street, the natural English translation is usually just outside.

The given word order is natural and neutral:

• Если на улице ветрено, мама повязывает платок и идёт в магазин.

Russian word order is more flexible than English, so other versions are possible, depending on emphasis. For example:

• Если на улице ветрено, платок мама повязывает и идёт в магазин.
  This sounds marked and gives special emphasis.

• Мама, если на улице ветрено, повязывает платок и идёт в магазин.
  Also possible, but less neutral.

For a learner, the original sentence is the best basic model.

In many contexts, платок means a headscarf or a square scarf that is tied, often around the head or shoulders.

Because the verb is повязывает and the context is windy weather, the sentence strongly suggests a headscarf rather than just any scarf.

So the image is likely:

• Mom ties on a headscarf before going out in windy weather.

That is why an English translation like headscarf may be more natural than just scarf, depending on context.