Learn Hardcore Russian: Сохраните чек, если хотите вернуть покупку. - Keep the receipt if you want to return the purchase.

Сохраните is the imperative form of the perfective verb сохранить (“to save/preserve”) for 2nd person plural or formal singular. In Russian, the -ите ending marks an imperative command directed at “you” (plural or polite), telling someone to carry out a one-time, completed action.

Why are чек and покупку in the accusative case, and why does чек look the same in nominative and accusative?

Both чек (“receipt”) and покупку (“purchase”) are direct objects of сохраните and вернуть, so they take the accusative case.

Чек is a masculine inanimate noun, and inanimate masculine nouns have identical forms for nominative and accusative (hence чек).
Покупка is feminine; its nominative -а ending changes to -у in the accusative, giving покупку.

Why is there no pronoun вы before хотите, and who is doing the wanting?

In Russian, the subject pronoun вы (“you”) is often omitted because the verb ending already indicates the subject. Хотите is 2nd person plural (or polite) of хотеть (“to want”), so it clearly means “you want.” You could insert вы (если вы хотите…) for emphasis, but it’s not required.

Why is вернуть in the infinitive after хотите?

After modal or desire verbs like хотеть (“to want”), Russian uses the infinitive form of the action verb to express “want to do something.” Thus хотите вернуть literally means “you want to return,” with вернуть staying unchanged for person or number.

Why are both сохраните and вернуть perfective verbs, and what if we used imperfective instead?

Perfective verbs (сохранить, вернуть) denote a single, completed action—save the check once, return the purchase once. If you used imperfective forms (сохраняйте, возвращать), you’d imply ongoing or habitual actions, which doesn’t fit this instruction. Imperfective here would sound unnatural.

Why is there a comma before если, and what role does если play?

The comma separates the main clause (Сохраните чек) from the subordinate conditional clause introduced by если (“if”). Here если хотите вернуть покупку sets up a condition: “if you want to return the purchase.” Russian punctuation requires a comma before most subordinating conjunctions like если.

Could we use чтобы instead of если—for example, Сохраните чек, чтобы вернуть покупку—and what would change?

Yes. Using чтобы (“in order to”) expresses purpose rather than condition.

…если хотите… = “if you want to…” (conditional)
…чтобы вернуть… = “in order to return…” (purpose)
Both are correct; если highlights a condition, чтобы highlights a goal.

Can we replace вернуть покупку with возвратить товар, and is there a nuance?

Yes. Возвратить is a synonym of вернуть (“to return”), and товар (“item/goods”) can stand in for покупка (“purchase”).

Сохраните чек, если хотите возвратить товар is perfectly grammatical.
Возвратить is slightly more formal or bookish; вернуть is more common in everyday speech.