Learn Hardcore Russian: Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате. - I like it when things have their usual place in the room.

Focuses more on how something feels to you, your reaction to it.
Is very natural for talking about preferences, tastes, and habits:
- Мне нравится, когда тихо. – I like it when it’s quiet.
- Мне нравится этот фильм. – I like this movie.

Я люблю is stronger and more direct, literally I love:

Often used for:
- Strong affection: Я люблю тебя. – I love you.
- Very stable preferences / passions: Я люблю музыку. – I love music.

In this sentence (about a neat room and things having their places), Мне нравится is more neutral and natural than Я люблю, which would sound a bit too strong or emotional.

Why is the verb нравится in the singular, even though we’re talking about “things” (вещи)?

The grammatical subject of нравится is not вещи, but the whole clause когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате.

That entire когда… clause is treated as a single idea, and in Russian such clauses are grammatically neuter singular. So the verb appears in 3rd person singular:

Мне нравится, когда … – It is pleasing to me when …

Compare:

Мне нравится музыка. – Music (singular) is pleasing to me → singular verb.
Мне нравятся эти вещи. – These things (plural) are pleasing to me → plural verb нравятся.

Here we’re not saying “I like things”; we’re saying “I like it when (something happens)”, so singular нравится is correct.

Why do we use когда here, not если? Both can translate as “when”.

Both когда and если can be when in English, but:

когда – when (as a time reference, often for habitual situations)
если – if (conditional, emphasizing possibility or condition)

In this sentence:

Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё привычное место…
- Emphasizes a typical situation: I like it in general when this is the case.

If you used если:

Мне нравится, если у вещей есть своё привычное место…
- Sounds more like: I like it if they happen to have their own usual place… (conditional, almost like “on the condition that”).

For a general habit / preference, когда is the natural choice.

What does the structure у вещей есть mean? Why not just say something like вещи имеют своё место?

у + Genitive + есть is a very common Russian way to express possession / existence:

у меня есть книга – I have a book (literally: at me there is a book)
у него есть машина – he has a car
у вещей есть своё место – the things have their place

This pattern is much more natural than иметь (to have) in everyday speech.

иметь is:

More formal / bookish in many contexts.
Often avoided in simple everyday sentences where English would say have.

So:

У вещей есть своё привычное место is normal, natural Russian.
Вещи имеют своё привычное место is grammatically correct but feels more formal or stiff, and not how people would normally say this in casual speech.

Why is it у вещей (genitive plural) and not у вещи or у вещи́й or something else?

вещей is the genitive plural of вещь (thing):

Nominative singular: вещь
Genitive singular: вещи
Nominative plural: вещи
Genitive plural: вещей

After у (in the meaning at / belonging to), Russian requires the genitive case:

у стола – at the table / the table has
у девушки – the girl has
у вещей – the things have

Because we are talking about “things” in general (plural), and we need genitive after у, we get у вещей.

What is the role of есть here? Can we leave it out?

есть here is the verb to be / to exist in a present-tense existential meaning:

У вещей есть своё место. – The things have their place.
Literally: At the things there *is their place.*

In many everyday sentences, есть can be omitted, especially when:

The existence is obvious.
The context is casual.

So both are possible:

У вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате. – Full, slightly more explicit.
У вещей своё привычное место в комнате. – Shorter, also correct and natural.

Meaning doesn’t really change; omitting есть just makes the sentence a bit more streamlined and colloquial.

Why is the pronoun своё, not их (“their”) or свои?

Two points: who it refers to and agreement.

Who it refers to
Свой / своё / своя / свои is a reflexive possessive pronoun. It normally refers back to the subject (or logical owner) of the clause.

In у вещей есть своё привычное место:

The “owners” are вещи (things).
So своё means their own (the things’ own).

You could say их привычное место, but:

своё is more natural when the possessor is the subject / owner of the clause.
их can sound a bit more detached, and in some contexts can be ambiguous (it might refer to some other они).

Agreement
Свой must agree with the noun it modifies, not with the owner:
- место is neuter singular → своё место
- If it were plural: свои места

Forms:

свой – masculine / animate singular (with masculine noun)
своя – feminine singular
своё – neuter singular
свои – plural

So here своё is correct because место is neuter singular.

What exactly does своё refer to here – “my”, “their”, or “someone’s” usual place?

In this sentence, своё refers specifically to the things themselves:

у вещей есть своё привычное место
→ the things have their own usual place

Because свой is reflexive, it points back to the same “owner” mentioned in у вещей:

the things’ own usual place

It is not my usual place. If you wanted my usual place, you would say:

моё привычное место

Here, the idea is: every object in the room has a specific place where it “belongs”.

What does привычное add to the meaning? How is it different from обычное?

Both привычное and обычное can be translated as usual, but with different nuances:

привычное (from привычка – habit):
- Something you are used to.
- Has a sense of habit, routine, what you’re accustomed to.
- привычное место – a place something normally stays in, and you are used to it being there.
обычное (from обычно – usually):
- More neutral “ordinary / usual / typical”.
- обычное место – normal, regular place (could be more general, less about personal habit).

In this sentence, своё привычное место emphasizes:

Each thing has its own customary / “habitual” place in the room.
The speaker is used to this order and likes it that way.

Обычное also wouldn’t be wrong, but привычное fits the idea of personal habit and order especially well.

Why is место in the nominative case here?

In the construction у вещей есть своё привычное место:

место is the grammatical subject of есть (to be / to exist).
In Russian, the subject normally appears in the nominative case.

Structure:

у вещей – genitive (indicating the possessor / “at the things”)
есть – verb “is / there is / exists”
своё привычное место – nominative subject (“a (certain) place”)

Literally:

At the things there is (exists) their own usual place.

If you changed the structure to something like:

Вещи лежат на своём привычном месте. – The things lie in their usual place.
Then:
месте is in the prepositional case (after на).

Why is it в комнате (with в and prepositional case) and not some other form?

В комнате is:

в – preposition in
комната – room (nominative)
комнате – prepositional singular (after в in location sense)

Russian uses the prepositional case with в to indicate location:

в комнате – in the room
в городе – in the city
в книге – in the book

So в комнате is in the room, describing where those “usual places” are located.

Is the comma before когда always necessary? What’s the rule?

Yes, in this sentence the comma is necessary.

Russian rule:

A subordinate clause (придаточное предложение) introduced by conjunctions like когда, если, потому что, что etc. is separated by a comma from the main clause.

Here:

Main clause: Мне нравится
Subordinate clause: когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате

So you must write:

Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате.

If the order were reversed, you would still need a comma:

Когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате, мне нравится.

Can we change the word order, for example: Мне нравится, когда у вещей в комнате есть своё привычное место? Is that still correct?

Yes, that word order is correct and natural:

Мне нравится, когда у вещей в комнате есть своё привычное место.

Both versions:

…когда у вещей есть своё привычное место в комнате.
…когда у вещей в комнате есть своё привычное место.

are fine. The difference is very slight:

In (1), you slightly emphasize the place being in the room.
In (2), you slightly emphasize the things (that are in the room) having their place.

In everyday speech, both are understood the same way. Russian word order is flexible; as long as the cases and prepositions are correct, the basic meaning stays intact.

Could we simplify the sentence and just say Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё место?

Yes, absolutely. This is a fully correct and natural sentence:

Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё место.
– I like it when things have their (own) place.

You’re just:

Removing the adjective привычное (usual, habitual).
Removing в комнате (in the room).

The structure:

Мне нравится, когда у вещей есть своё место.

is grammatically the same and very common in Russian.