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Russian grammar Part of Chapter 3

CEFR A1

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Seasons and Weather in Russian: зимой, в мае, холодно

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

Russian seasons are four short nouns, but you mostly meet them in another shape. In winter is one word, , with no preposition. In May is . And the weather needs almost no verbs: is a whole sentence, it is cold.

Quick check

Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.

Spot the mistake

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The whole system on one screen

Colour marks the ending that does the work:

feminineneuterinstrumentalprepositionaldativeWhat do the colours mean?
Say thisRussianEnglish
the seasonwinter
in the seasonin winter
in the month in May
the weather ?What's the weather like?
how it is.It's cold.
how you feel .I'm cold.
rain, snow .It's raining.

Three patterns carry the lot: a one-word season, plus a month, and an adverb for the weather.

The four seasons

RussianSay itEnglishGender
zi-MAwinterfeminine
vis-NAspringfeminine
LYE-tasummerneuter
O-syenautumnfeminine

is the one to watch. It ends in a soft sign and it is feminine, so the adjective takes the feminine ending:

  • - a cold autumn

The others follow the endings you already know, -а feminine and -о neuter:

  • . - I love summer.
  • . - Winter in Russia is long.

In winter: зимой, летом, весной, осенью

English says in winter. Russian uses one word and no preposition. Each is the noun with an instrumental ending, frozen into an adverb:

зима, winter, becomes зимой, in winter
SeasonIn the seasonSay it
zi-MOY
vis-NOY
LYE-tam
O-syen-yu
Four panels: spring with a blossoming tree, flowers and a butterfly; summer with a beach, sea, sun, umbrella and ball; autumn with an orange tree and falling leaves; winter with snow, a snowy pine tree and a snowman.

весной, in spring (blossom); летом, in summer (the beach); осенью, in autumn (falling leaves); зимой, in winter (snow).

Learn them as four separate words, because that is how they work in a sentence:

  • . - It's cold here in winter.
  • . - In summer we were at home.
  • . - It often rains in autumn.

The twelve months, season by season

The months are all masculine and all lower case. Most look familiar, because they come from the same Latin names as the English ones. Grouped the Russian way, by season:

masculineprepositionalWhat do the colours mean?
SeasonMonths
, ,
, ,
, ,
, ,

Six of them end in a soft sign and move their stress onto any ending that is added (, and end in a soft sign too, but keep their stress on the stem):

RussianSay itEnglish
yin-VARJanuary
fiv-RALFebruary
sin-TYABRSeptember
ak-TYABROctober
na-YABRNovember
di-KABRDecember
  • . - It's January now.

For dates, the 1st of May and so on, see dates, months and years.

In May: в мае

For in a month, use and give the month the prepositional ending -е. A month in -ь or -й drops that letter first:

май, May, becomes в мае, in May
MonthIn the monthEnglish
in January
in February
in March
апре́леin April
in May
in June
in July
in August
in September
in December

October and November work the same way: , . Those six put the stress on the new ending: is v-yin-var-YE. The rest keep theirs on the stem: is v-MA-ye, апре́ле is v-ap-RYE-lye.

  • . - It's warm in May.
  • . - It snows in January.

What's the weather like? Какая погода?

Colour here marks the feminine agreement and the dative person:

femininedativeWhat do the colours mean?

The question is ?, literally which weather today? is feminine, so an adjective with it takes -ая:

RussianEnglish
.The weather's good.
.Bad weather.
.It's cold today.
.It's sunny today.

The last two skip altogether, which is how most weather gets said.

Холодно, тепло, жарко: how it feels

The weather words are adverbs, and a Russian sentence about the weather needs no subject and no verb. English has to invent an it:

RussianSay itEnglish
KHO-lad-nait's cold
tip-LOit's warm
ZHAR-kait's hot
SOL-nich-nait's sunny

For how a person feels, put the person in the dative, with the same adverb:

  • . - I'm cold. (to me it is cold)
  • . - He's hot.
  • ? - Are you warm enough?

In the past the verb comes back, always neuter:

  • . - It was cold yesterday.

Rain, snow and sun

Rain and snow do not fall in Russian. They go:

RussianEnglishLiterally
.It's raining.rain is going
.It's snowing.snow is going
Све́тит .The sun's out.the sun is shining
.It's windy.strong wind
Four panels: a grinning sun over an ice cream for sunny and hot; a grey cloud with rain falling on a red umbrella for rainy; a white cloud, snowflakes and a snowman for snowy and cold; a puffing cloud blowing wind and leaves at a bending tree for windy.
  1. .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. .

Жарко, it's hot; идёт дождь, it's raining; идёт снег, it's snowing; сильный ветер, it's windy.

In the past, the rain and snow go in the past tense, agreeing with the noun:

  • . - It snowed yesterday.

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
in a season is one word
the month takes the -е ending
. .the person feeling it is in the dative
. .with , use the adjective
is feminine

is Russian, but it does not mean I feel cold: it means you are cold to the touch, or an unfriendly person.

What to do next

  1. Say what the weather is like where you are, in one word.
  2. Name the season of your birthday, then and the month.
  3. Do the drill below.

Practise: test yourself

Build the word

0/4

Build in that season or in that month.

  1. in winter

    Type Latin letters or Cyrillic - spasibo works too

    Your word is empty.

  2. in summer

    Type Latin letters or Cyrillic - spasibo works too

    Your word is empty.

  3. in autumn

    Type Latin letters or Cyrillic - spasibo works too

    Your word is empty.

  4. in May: в ___

    Type Latin letters or Cyrillic - spasibo works too

    Your word is empty.

Spot the mistake

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Complete the story

0/3

Choose the right form for each gap.

A week in January

Сейчас . На улице очень . Вчера снег, и мне было холодно.

Gap 1 of 3

Matching

0/5

Match each Russian word to its English.

Translation drill

0/3

Write the English.

  1. Какая сегодня погода?

  2. Летом здесь жарко.

  3. Идёт дождь.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the four seasons in Russian?
(winter), (spring), (summer) and (autumn). and are feminine, is neuter, and is feminine too: it ends in a soft sign, which can be either gender, so this one has to be learned. None of them takes a capital letter.
How do you say in winter or in summer in Russian?
With one word and no preposition: (in winter), (in spring), (in summer), (in autumn). Learn them as four words. The beginner's does not mean in winter.
How do you say in January or in May in Russian?
plus the month with an -е ending: , , , . Months ending in -ь or -й drop that letter before the -е: becomes , becomes . The months stay lower case.
How do you say it is cold in Russian?
. One word, no it and no is, because the present of is invisible. For a person, add the dative: , I am cold, literally to me it is cold. The same goes for (warm) and (hot).
How do you say it is raining in Russian?
, literally rain is going. Snow goes too: . Everyday Russian has no separate verb to rain or to snow, so most of its weather runs on .