Breakdown of У меня есть желание изучать русский язык.
я
I
изучать
to study
русский
Russian
язык
the language
желание
the desire
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Questions & Answers about У меня есть желание изучать русский язык.
Why do we use У меня есть instead of я имею when expressing “I have” in Russian?
In Russian, possession is normally expressed with the construction у + genitive + есть. The phrase я имею is grammatically correct but very bookish or archaic. Most speakers will say У меня есть to sound natural.
Why is меня in the genitive case rather than мне or я?
The preposition у always takes a genitive-case noun or pronoun. That’s why я becomes меня after у.
Could we omit есть and just say У меня желание изучать русский язык?
In informal or poetic style, you might drop есть, but the full form У меня есть желание… is more neutral and clear in everyday speech. Omitting есть can sound literary or stylistically marked.
Why is желание in the nominative case?
Within the phrase у меня есть желание…, желание is the subject of the existential verb есть, so it stands in the nominative case.
Why do we use the infinitive изучать after желание?
After nouns like желание (“desire”), Russian typically uses an infinitive to indicate the intended action. Thus желание изучать = “the desire to study.”
Why is изучать imperfective and not the perfective изучить?
The imperfective infinitive изучать emphasizes an ongoing or habitual process of studying. The perfective изучить would imply completing the study in its entirety, shifting the nuance to “to have fully studied Russian.”
Why is русский язык in the accusative case here?
The verb изучать takes a direct object in the accusative. Inanimate masculine nouns like русский язык have the same form in nominative and accusative, but grammatically it’s functioning as an accusative object.
Can I say Я хочу изучать русский язык instead? What’s the difference?
Yes. Я хочу изучать русский язык (“I want to study Russian”) is more common in spoken Russian. У меня есть желание… sounds slightly more formal or emphatic, focusing on the very existence of your desire rather than the act of wanting.