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Questions & Answers about Я хочу починить машину.
What is the literal meaning of “Я хочу починить машину”?
It means “I want to fix the car.” Here, Я stands for “I”, хочу means “want”, починить translates as “to fix/repair”, and машину is the accusative (direct object) form of “машина” (car).
What is the grammatical structure of the sentence?
The sentence follows a simple structure: subject ("Я") + verb ("хочу") + infinitive ("починить") + direct object ("машину"). The subject indicates who is performing the action, the verb expresses the desire, the infinitive specifies the intended action, and the object receives the action.
Why is the verb починить used instead of its imperfective counterpart?
Починить is in the perfective aspect, which implies that the action will be completed once it starts. The perfective is used here because the speaker intends to completely fix the car. An imperfective form (like чинить) would suggest an ongoing, habitual, or repeated action rather than a single, completed repair.
Why is машину in the accusative case?
In Russian, the direct object of a verb is placed in the accusative case. Since машина (car) is the thing being fixed, its form changes to машину to show that it is the object receiving the action of починить.
How does the verb хочу agree with the subject in this sentence?
Хочу is the first-person singular present tense of the verb хотеть (to want), and it agrees with the subject Я (“I”). In Russian, verbs must be conjugated to match the person and number of the subject, so хочу appropriately reflects that the speaker is referring to themselves.