Мне хо́лодно: states, feelings and opinions
Many adjectives have a form ending in -о that names a state: хо́лодно (cold), ве́село (fun). On its own it describes the surroundings: Здесь хо́лодно, “It’s cold here”. Add a person in the dative and it describes how that person feels. Build one:
мо́жно, нельзя́, на́до, ну́жно
Four words cover “may”, “mustn’t”, “must” and “needn’t”. Each is followed by a verb in the infinitive. Add the person in the dative if you need to say who: Мне на́до рабо́тать, “I have to work”.
бы́ло and бу́дет: one form for everyone
With no subject to agree with, the verb “to be” always takes its neuter “it” form: бы́ло (was) in the past, бу́дет (will be) in the future. The present has no verb at all.
| Past · бы́ло | Present · nothing | Future · бу́дет | |
|---|---|---|---|
| State | |||
| Necessity | |||
| Absence |
Verbs with no one doing them: “it’s getting dark”
Some verbs describe processes in nature that nobody performs. They are used only in the “it” form (он/она́/оно́ in the present, neuter -о in the past), with no subject. English fills the gap with an empty “it”.
нет + genitive: “there is no …”
To say something is absent, Russian uses нет (there isn’t) and puts the missing thing in the genitive case, the “of” form. The missing thing is not the subject, so the sentence is impersonal. In the past use не́ бы́ло, in the future не бу́дет, always in this neuter form.
“They say”, “you can”: people in general
To talk about unnamed people, Russian drops the pronoun and keeps only the verb. The “they” form (-ют, -ят) means “people”, often where English uses a passive. The “you” form (-ешь, -ишь) states a general truth.
Say it the Russian way
Choose the natural Russian for each English sentence.