Breakdown of Вчера было ветрено и морозно, поэтому ему было холодно.
и
and
вчера
yesterday
быть
to be
ему
to him, to it
поэтому
so (therefore)
холодно
cold (adverb)
ветрено
windy
морозно
freezing
Questions & Answers about Вчера было ветрено и морозно, поэтому ему было холодно.
Why do we use ему instead of он for 'he was cold'?
In Russian, physical states like being cold, hot, or sad don't use the subject 'he' or 'I'. Instead, the feeling happens to the person. That is why we use the Dative case pronoun ему (to him) with the state word холодно (cold).
Why is было used for both 'it was' and 'he was'?
Both halves of the sentence are impersonal expressions, which don't have a regular masculine or feminine subject. Because of this, they both use the default neuter past tense form было. The first half describes the general weather ('it was windy'), and the second half describes a state happening to him ('it was cold to him').
Why do the words ветрено, морозно, and холодно all end in -о?
In impersonal sentences where there is no active noun doing an action, we use predicative adverbs, which end in -о. If you were describing a specific noun, like a 'cold wind', you would use a regular adjective like холодный.
Could I use так instead of поэтому to say 'so'?
No, because they mean different kinds of 'so'. Поэтому means 'for this reason' or 'therefore', which connects the cause (the weather) to the result (him being cold). Так means 'so' in the sense of 'very' (for example, 'it was so cold').
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