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Это был такой глухой взрыв, что никто не проснулся.

Это был такой глухой взрыв, что никто не проснулся.
It was such a muffled explosion that nobody woke up.
From Lesson 288:Degree and result (так ... что)·Russian

Questions & Answers about Это был такой глухой взрыв, что никто не проснулся.

Why do we use такой here instead of так?
In Russian, такой (such) is an adjective, so it is used before nouns. так (so) is an adverb and is used before adjectives or other adverbs. Because we are describing a noun—saying "such an explosion" (такой взрыв) rather than "so loud"—we need такой. It takes the masculine form to agree with взрыв.
I thought это was neuter, so why is the verb был (masculine) instead of было?
In sentences following the pattern "It was a..." or "This was a...", the invariable word это introduces the subject, but the past tense verb быть (to be) always agrees with the noun that follows it. Since взрыв (explosion) is masculine, the verb must be был. If it were a neuter noun like утро (morning), you would say это было утро.
Doesn't глухой usually mean "deaf"? Why is it translated as "muffled" here?
Yes, applied to a person, глухой means "deaf". However, when used to describe a sound, it means dull, faint, or muffled (literally a sound that is hard to hear). You'll also see it used metaphorically for places, meaning "remote" or "isolated" (like the middle of nowhere).
Is никто не проснулся a double negative?
Yes, and this is completely standard! Russian strictly requires a double negative. Whenever you use a negative word like никто (nobody), ничего (nothing), or никогда (never), you must also put не directly in front of the verb.
Why is the verb проснулся in the masculine form if "nobody" doesn't have a gender?
Grammatically, the pronoun никто acts as a masculine singular noun. Because past tense verbs in Russian must agree with their subject in gender and number, any past tense verb paired with никто will take the masculine singular ending (-л or -лся), regardless of who was actually in the room.

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