Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

It is easier for me to fall asleep when the apartment is quiet.

Breakdown of Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

• в: in
• мне: me
• тихо: quiet
• когда: when
• квартира: the apartment
• засыпать: to fall asleep
• легче: easier

Questions & Answers about Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

Why is it мне and not я at the beginning of the sentence?

In Russian, feelings, abilities, and states are very often expressed with the dative case rather than a subject with я.

• Мне легче… literally means “To me (it is) easier…”
• The more natural English translation is “It’s easier for me…”

So instead of saying something like Я легче засыпаю (which sounds unnatural), Russian uses an impersonal structure:

• Мне холодно. – I am cold (literally: To me it’s cold)
• Мне скучно. – I am bored
• Мне трудно говорить по‑русски. – It’s hard for me to speak Russian.
• Мне легче засыпать… – It’s easier for me to fall asleep…

So мне is dative: “for me / to me.”

What exactly does легче mean, and what is its base form?

Легче is the comparative form of the adjective лёгкий (easy, light).

• лёгкий – easy / light
• легче – easier / lighter

In your sentence:

• Мне легче засыпать… = It’s easier for me to fall asleep…

This is the same pattern as:

• тяжёлый – тяжелее (heavy – heavier)
• быстрый – быстрее (fast – faster)
• тихий – тише (quiet – quieter)

Note that spelling changes: лёгкий → легче (г + ч).

Why is there no form of the verb быть (like есть or будет) in Мне легче засыпать?

In the present tense, Russian normally omits the verb “to be” in sentences like this.

• English: It is easier for me to fall asleep.
• Russian literally: To me easier to fall asleep.

So the “hidden” full form would be:

• Мне (есть) легче засыпать.

But in modern Russian, есть is dropped. This is standard and very common:

• Он врач. – He is a doctor.
• Мне холодно. – I am cold.
• Им трудно. – It is hard for them.
• Мне легче засыпать. – It is easier for me to fall asleep.

Why is засыпать in the infinitive and not a conjugated form like засыпаю?

After adjectives of difficulty/possibility like легче, трудно, легко, невозможно, Russian normally uses an infinitive to express the action:

• Мне трудно говорить по‑русски. – It’s hard for me to speak Russian.
• Ему легко читать по‑английски. – It’s easy for him to read in English.
• Мне легче засыпать… – It’s easier for me to fall asleep…

If you said Я легче засыпаю, it would sound wrong; легче works here as a comparative evaluation of “how easy” the action is for someone, so it links naturally with an infinitive and a dative:
(Кому?) мне + (как?) легче + (что делать?) засыпать.

Why is it засыпать (imperfective) and not заснуть (perfective)?

Both засыпать and заснуть mean to fall asleep, but:

• засыпать – imperfective, focuses on the process / general ability
• заснуть – perfective, focuses on the result / one-time event

In your sentence, we’re talking about how easy the process / act of falling asleep generally is:

• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.
  → In general, it’s easier for me to fall asleep when it’s quiet.

If you said:

• Мне легче заснуть, когда в квартире тихо.

this would sound more like “It’s easier for me to succeed in falling asleep (in that situation)”, emphasizing reaching the state of sleep as a result. It’s not wrong, but засыпать is more neutral and natural for a general statement about conditions under which you (tend to) fall asleep.

What case is квартире in, and why?

Квартире is in the prepositional case (падеж – предложный).

The pattern is:

• preposition в
  • квартира (feminine noun) → в квартире (in the apartment)

Prepositional is used after в, на (and some others) when we talk about location:

• в квартире – in the apartment
• в комнате – in the room
• на улице – in the street / outside
• в городе – in the city

So квартире answers the question “Где?” – “Where?”

What is тихо here exactly: an adjective or an adverb? Why not тихая квартира?

In когда в квартире тихо, тихо is a predicative adverb (also often described together with short-form adjectives). It functions like:

• quiet in “it is quiet”
• or silently / quietly depending on context

The idea is not “the apartment is a quiet apartment (as a characteristic)”, but “it is quiet in the apartment (right now / at those times)”.

Compare:

• тихая квартира – a quiet apartment (a general characteristic)
• в квартире тихо – it is quiet in the apartment (current state, environment)

So in this sentence, we care about the current noise level, not the permanent quality of the apartment.

Could you say когда тихо в квартире instead of когда в квартире тихо?

Yes, both word orders are grammatically correct:

• когда в квартире тихо
• когда тихо в квартире

The first one (в квартире тихо) is more neutral and common: it presents the location first, then the state.

The second one (тихо в квартире) puts a little more emphasis on тихо (“when it’s quiet, in the apartment”). It can sound slightly more expressive, but it’s not wrong.

In everyday speech, когда в квартире тихо is probably more typical.

What is the difference between тихо в квартире and тишина в квартире?

Both relate to quietness, but with a nuance:

• тихо в квартире – it is quiet in the apartment

  • describes the current sound level (no or little noise)
  • focuses on a state / condition

• тишина в квартире – there is silence in the apartment

  • тишина is a noun (“silence”)
  • can sound more dramatic / poetic / heavier

So:

• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо. – neutral, everyday.
• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тишина. – stronger image, a bit more literary or emphatic.

Why is there a comma before когда?

In Russian, когда introduces a subordinate clause of time, and such clauses are normally separated by a comma.

Structure of your sentence:

• Main clause: Мне легче засыпать
• Subordinate clause: когда в квартире тихо

So we write:

• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

This is the general rule:

• Я читаю, когда у меня есть время.
• Мы гуляем, когда не идёт дождь.
• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

Can I say Мне легко засыпать instead of Мне легче засыпать? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but the meaning changes:

• Мне легко засыпать… – It’s easy for me to fall asleep… (no comparison)
• Мне легче засыпать… – It’s easier for me to fall asleep… (compared to something else)

Often the comparison is implicit:

• Compared to when it’s noisy,
• Compared to other people,
• Compared to some other situation.

In your full sentence:

• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.
  → It’s easier for me to fall asleep (in that case, as opposed to when it’s noisy).

If you said:

• Мне легко засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.

you’d be saying that under that condition, it’s (just) easy for you, not necessarily contrasting with anything.

Is there a difference between Мне легче засыпать and Мне легче спать?

Yes, they answer different questions:

• засыпать – to fall asleep (transition from awake → asleep)
• спать – to sleep (already in the state of sleep)

So:

• Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.
  → It’s easier for me to fall asleep when it’s quiet.

• Мне легче спать, когда в квартире тихо.
  → It’s easier for me to sleep / I sleep more easily when it’s quiet (the quality of your sleep, not the act of falling asleep).

Both are possible, but they focus on different parts of the “sleep process”.

Is Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо an impersonal sentence?

Yes, the main clause is essentially impersonal:

• There is no grammatical subject like я.
• Мне is dative, not nominative: it marks “for whom” the action is easier.
• The structure is: (Кому?) мне + (как?) легче + (что делать?) засыпать.

Russian often uses this impersonal pattern for feelings, difficulty, possibility:

• Мне жарко. – I am hot.
• Ей трудно работать. – It’s hard for her to work.
• Им интересно читать. – It’s interesting for them to read.

So your sentence fits that same pattern, with an added time clause:
Мне легче засыпать, когда в квартире тихо.