The Weather

If you don’t know what to say to someone you’ve just met, “It’s hot today” might do the trick! Grammatically speaking, talking about the weather in Russian is a piece of cake. To say "It's hot" you need just one word: Жарко. You can add "сегодня" (today) or "сейчас" (now):

Сегодня жарко. = It's hot today.

As you can see, you don't need a verb or a subject!

You can use the same construction for other weather conditions, too:

Сейчас холодно. = It's cold now.

Сегодня солнечно. = It's sunny today.

Ветрено. = It's windy.

Туманно. = It's foggy.

Even though "жарко" is translated into English as "hot" (an adjective), in Russian it's an adverb.

It's used only in the sentences like"It's hot" or "I'm hot". If there's a noun in the sentence, we usually use

the adjective "жаркий":

Погода жаркая. = The weather is hot.

Лето жаркое. = The summer is hot.

It's a very common mistake to say "это жарко". Please, note that "it's" isn't translated, so you don’t need "это" to talk about the weather.

Here are some words and expressions that you might find useful:

Погода = weather

Жарко = It’s hot

Холодно = It’s cold

Тепло = It's warm.

Идёт дождь = It’s raining

Идёт снег = It’s snowing

Ветрено = It’s windy

Ветер = wind

Солнечно = It’s sunny

Солнце = the Sun

Облачно = cloudy

Облако = cloud

Туман = fog

Туманно = It’s foggy

Try the flashcards to help you learn the words!

Please, note that we use the verb «идти» (to go) to say «It’s raining» or “It’s snowing”, so literally it’s “The rain is going” and “The snow is going”! The Past Tense of “идти” is «шёл», so we say «Вчера шёл дождь» (It rained yesterday).

Practice: Try the exercise