Learn Russian: Вчера был дождь, и сегодня снова дождь. - Yesterday there was rain, and today it is raining again.

The word вчера means "yesterday", which places the event in the past. Because of this, we must use the past tense of the verb "to be" (был) to say that there was rain.

Why does the Russian sentence say "was rain" (был дождь) instead of using a verb for "it rained"?

In Russian, weather is usually described using nouns rather than verbs. Instead of saying "it rained," Russians literally say "rain was" (был дождь).

Why do we use был and not было or была?

In the past tense, the verb must match the gender of the noun. Even though дождь ends in a soft sign (-ь), it is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine verb form был.

Where is the verb in the second half of the sentence (сегодня снова дождь)?

In Russian, the present tense of "to be" (am/is/are) is normally left out. To say "today it is raining again", you literally just say "today again rain". You only need to add a verb like был when talking about the past or будет for the future.

Is there a trick to pronouncing the time word сегодня?

Yes! The letter г in сегодня is pronounced like a "v" (se-VOD-nya). This is a common pronunciation rule for this specific word, which you will hear all the time.