Зимний ветер холодный и сильный.

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

So:

• Зимний ветер холодный и сильный. = The winter wind is cold and strong.

Russian does not normally say a present-tense equivalent of is here.

Compare:

• Он студент. = He is a student.
• Дом большой. = The house is big.

But in the past or future, forms of to be do appear:

• Ветер был холодный. = The wind was cold.
• Ветер будет сильный. = The wind will be strong.

Зима is a noun meaning winter.

But зимний is an adjective meaning:

• winter
• wintry
• of winter

So in зимний ветер, the adjective describes the noun:

• зимний = winter/wintry
• ветер = wind

Together: winter wind or a wintry wind.

Russian often uses an adjective where English may use either:

• a noun + noun: winter wind
• or an adjective: wintry wind

Those are adjective endings, and they must match the noun they describe.

Here the noun is ветер (wind), which is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative case

So the adjectives also appear in the masculine singular nominative form:

• зимний
• холодный
• сильный

This is called adjective agreement.

A few examples with different genders:

• холодный ветер = cold wind (masculine)
• холодная зима = cold winter (feminine)
• холодное утро = cold morning (neuter)
• холодные дни = cold days (plural)

All three are still in the same grammatical form: masculine singular nominative.
The difference is due to the type of adjective stem.

• холодный ends in -ый
• сильный ends in -ый
• зимний ends in -ий

Many Russian adjectives use either -ый or -ий in this form. Which one appears depends on spelling patterns and the adjective’s stem.

So the difference here is lexical/spelling-based, not a difference in case, gender, or number.

You do not choose freely between them; you learn each adjective in its dictionary form:

• зимний
• холодный
• сильный

Yes, they can often go before the noun too.

This sentence has:

• Зимний ветер = winter wind
• холодный и сильный = cold and strong

So literally the structure is:

• Winter wind, cold and strong.

Russian word order is more flexible than English.
Placing adjectives after the noun can sound like a description or statement about the noun, especially in simple sentences.

You could also say:

• Холодный и сильный зимний ветер.

But that sounds more like a noun phrase (a cold and strong winter wind) than a full sentence unless the context makes it one.

The original sentence is natural because it works like:

• The winter wind is cold and strong.

In this sentence, холодный and сильный are acting as the predicate part of the sentence.

That means they are not just part of the noun phrase зимний ветер. Instead, they are telling us something about the subject.

Structure:

• Зимний ветер = the subject
• холодный и сильный = what is said about the subject

So grammatically this is closer to:

• The winter wind is cold and strong

not:

• the cold and strong winter wind

This is why the sentence does not need a separate word for is in the present tense.

Ветер is in the nominative singular.

Why?

Because it is the subject of the sentence:

• The winter wind is cold and strong.

In dictionary form, ветер is already nominative singular.

The adjectives agree with it:

• зимний ветер
• ветер холодный и сильный

So all the descriptive words are also in masculine singular nominative.

Russian has no articles like English a/an/the.

So ветер can mean:

• a wind
• the wind

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English would usually translate it as:

• The winter wind is cold and strong

because it sounds like a general statement about a known or typical winter wind.

But Russian itself does not mark that distinction with an article.

Yes, that is possible, but the emphasis changes.

• Зимний ветер холодный и сильный.
  This starts with winter wind as a unit.

• Ветер зимний, холодный и сильный.
  This gives more emphasis to ветер first, then describes it as winter, cold, and strong.

The second version may sound more marked or stylistic, depending on context.
The original is the most straightforward, natural version for a neutral statement.

Yes. И means and.

So:

• холодный и сильный = cold and strong

It simply joins two adjectives that both describe the same noun.

Russian does not need to repeat the noun:

• ветер холодный и сильный
• not ветер холодный и ветер сильный

unless you want special emphasis.

A helpful pronunciation guide with stress:

• Зи́мний ве́тер холо́дный и си́льный.

Approximate pronunciation:

• ZEEM-neey VYE-ter kha-LOHD-nyy ee SEEL-nyy

A few notes:

• зимний has stress on the first syllable: ЗИ́мний
• ветер has stress on the first syllable: ВЕ́тер
• холодный has stress on the second syllable: холо́дный
• сильный has stress on the first syllable: СИ́льный

Also, the final -ый in adjectives is often pronounced roughly like -iy / -y, not like English why.

Yes, it can.

Because Russian has no articles, the sentence can express either:

• a specific idea: The winter wind is cold and strong
• or a general truth: A winter wind is cold and strong

The exact interpretation depends on context.

If this sentence appears by itself in a textbook, it is often best understood as a simple descriptive statement:

• The winter wind is cold and strong.

But grammatically, Russian leaves article-based distinctions to context.

Because зимний ветер forms a natural noun phrase: winter wind.

Then the sentence says something about that noun phrase:

• зимний ветер = subject
• холодный и сильный = predicate description

So the logic is:

1. identify the thing: the winter wind
2. describe it: cold and strong

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• Ночь тёмная и тихая. = The night is dark and quiet.
• Чай горячий. = The tea is hot.
• День длинный. = The day is long.