Breakdown of Если есть солнце и дождь, то это хорошо для почвы.
это
this / it is
и
and
дождь
rain
хорошо
well
Questions & Answers about Если есть солнце и дождь, то это хорошо для почвы.
Why do we use то in this sentence? Is it mandatory?
то translates to "then" in an "if... then..." sentence. While you will often hear Russian speakers drop it (just like we sometimes drop "then" in English), pairing Если with то is the standard way to clearly link a condition to its result.
Why is the word есть used here? Don't Russians normally skip the verb "to be" in the present tense?
Normally, yes! If you are just describing something, you drop the verb (for example, это хорошо literally means "this [is] good"). But when you want to state that something exists or is present—similar to "there is" or "there are" in English—you must use есть. Here, it means "If there is sun and rain."
Why does the word for soil (почва) end in -ы here?
Because it follows the preposition для (for). The word для always forces the noun that comes after it into the Genitive case. Since почва is a feminine noun ending in -а, its Genitive ending becomes -ы, giving us для почвы.
Why do we use хорошо instead of the full adjective хороший?