К полуночи ветер стих, и на улице стало совсем тихо.

and

Breakdown of К полуночи ветер стих, и на улице стало совсем тихо.

• на: on
• улица: the street
• тихо: quiet

Questions & Answers about К полуночи ветер стих, и на улице стало совсем тихо.

What does к полуночи mean here, and why is it not just полночь?

К полуночи means by midnight or toward midnight in this context.

The preposition к normally takes the dative case, so полночь becomes полуночи.

• nominative: полночь
• dative: к полуночи

With time expressions, к + dative often means by a certain time:

• к утру = by morning
• к вечеру = by evening
• к полуночи = by midnight

So the idea is that by the time midnight came, the wind had died down.

Why is ветер in the nominative case?

Because ветер is the subject of the verb стих.

In ветер стих, the wind is the thing doing the action/state change, so it stays in the nominative:

• ветер = the wind
• стих = died down / grew calm

This is a normal subject + verb structure.

What does стих come from?