Сохраните чек, если хотите вернуть покупку.

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Breakdown of Сохраните чек, если хотите вернуть покупку.

• хотеть: to want
• чек: the receipt
• сохранить: to keep

Questions & Answers about Сохраните чек, если хотите вернуть покупку.

Why is сохраните used here, and what does the ending -ите indicate?

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.