Questions & Answers about Недавно море было тёплое.
Why do we use было instead of был or была here?
The past tense of the verb to be must match the gender of the subject. The word море (sea) is a neuter noun because it ends in -е. Therefore, we use the neuter past tense form было. If the subject were masculine, you would use был, and for feminine, была.
Why does тёплое end in -ое?
Adjectives have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Since море is a neuter noun, the adjective for warm needs the standard neuter ending -ое, becoming тёплое.
Does the word order matter here? Could I say Море было тёплое недавно?
Russian word order is very flexible. You can absolutely say Море было тёплое недавно or Море недавно было тёплое. However, starting with the time word (Недавно) is a very natural way to set the scene in Russian, much like saying 'Recently, the sea was warm' in English.
I noticed тёплое has a ё. Does that affect how it is pronounced?
Yes, the letter ё is special in Russian: whenever it appears in a word, that syllable always gets the stress. So you will always emphasize the тёп- part of the word.