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Questions & Answers about Я хочу записать новую песню.
What role does хочу play, and why is it followed by an infinitive verb here?
хочу is the 1st-person singular present of хотеть (“to want”). In Russian, verbs of desire (хотеть, любить, уметь, etc.) are followed directly by an infinitive. So Я хочу записать literally means “I want to record.”
Why is записать in the infinitive form, and how does aspect work here?
записать is the perfective infinitive of записывать. Perfective verbs describe a single, complete action. After хочу, you choose between perfective (записать) for “to record once/to completion” and imperfective (записывать) for “to be recording/record repeatedly.” Here, perfective is most natural: “I want to record a new song (one time).”
What case is новую песню, and how do its endings change from the nominative?
песня is feminine. As a direct object, it takes the accusative case. For inanimate feminine nouns ending in -я, the accusative ending is -ю:
– Nominative: песня
– Accusative: песню
Adjectives agree in gender, number, and case:
– Nom. fem.: новая
– Acc. fem.: новую
Where do the word stresses fall in “Я хочу записать новую песню”?
я хoчУ записа́ть нOвую пEсню
(ho-CHU za-pi-SAT NO-vu-yu PE-snyu)
Can I change the word order for emphasis?
Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible. The neutral order is S-V-O: Я хочу записать новую песню. To emphasize “new song,” you could say:
Новую песню я хочу записать (“It’s the new song that I want to record”).
Moving я to the end (…хочу записать новую песню я) sounds poetic or very emphatic.
How would I make this sentence more polite, like “I would like to record a new song”?
Use the conditional/hypothetical form with бы:
Я хотел(а) бы записать новую песню.
Literally “I would want to record a new song.”
Does записать always mean “to record,” or can it mean “to write down”?
записать can mean either “to record” (audio/video) or “to write down” (notes). Context clarifies it. Here новую песню implies an audio recording. If you meant “write down the lyrics,” you’d add текст: записать текст песни.
Why isn’t there a preposition before новую песню?
Transitive verbs like записать take a direct object without a preposition. You only use prepositions when the verb governs a specific case that requires one (e.g., думать о песне, “to think about a song”). Recording a song uses the accusative directly: записать песню.