Questions & Answers about Зимой мне нужны перчатки.
Why is мне used in this sentence instead of я?
In Russian, expressing need doesn't use a regular verb like the English verb to need. Instead, it uses a structure that literally means Gloves are necessary to me. The person who needs something is put in the Dative case, so the subject я becomes мне.
Why does the word for winter end in -ой (зимой)?
Зимой is the Instrumental case of the word зима. Russian often uses the bare Instrumental case for seasons and parts of the day to mean in the winter or in the morning. That is why we say зимой instead of using a preposition like we do in English.
Why is the word нужны plural here?
Because grammatically, перчатки is the subject of the sentence. The word нужны is a short adjective meaning necessary. It must match its subject in number, and since перчатки is plural, we use the plural form нужны. If you needed a singular feminine object like a hat (шапка), you would use the singular form нужна.
Is перчатки in the Accusative case since it is the object being needed?
No, it is in the Nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form. Because the literal structure of the Russian sentence is Gloves are necessary to me, the gloves are the grammatical subject doing the action, not the direct object.