ABSTRACT
Russian adverbs ending in -о — with the same form as the neuter short form of the adjective: плохо ‘badly’, хорошо ‘well’, быстро ‘quickly’, холодно ‘cold’ — are very frequently used in impersonal sentences as predicates. As we saw in the explanation of the use of должен (see Unit 9), the function of a predicate is to assert or deny something about the subject. In impersonal sentences there is no subject so, for example, the short form холодно means simply ‘it is cold’. The following verbs are frequently used with these predicates:
быть ‘to be’:
Было ужасно жарко и душно.
‘It was terribly hot and stuffy.’
становиться/стать ‘to become’:
Вечером становится холодно.
‘In the evening it gets cold.’
