Questions & Answers about Зимой был сильный мороз.
Why do we use был instead of the impersonal было we are learning about?
In this lesson, you are learning impersonal phrases like было холодно (it was cold), where было is neuter. However, this sentence has a real subject: мороз (frost). Since мороз is a masculine noun, the verb must match it, so we use the masculine past tense был.
Why is there no word for 'there' in the Russian sentence?
Why does the word for 'winter' end in -ой here?
Зимой is the Instrumental case of зима (winter). Russian uses the Instrumental case without any prepositions to say when something happens during seasons or parts of the day. So, зимой is the standard way to say 'in winter.'
Does сильный literally mean 'hard'?
It literally means 'strong.' While English usually says 'a hard frost' or 'heavy rain,' Russian describes intense weather as 'strong.' You will see this often: сильный ветер (strong wind), сильный дождь (heavy rain), and сильный мороз (hard frost).