Learn Hardcore Russian: Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке. - I do not like to leave trash in the park.

In Russian, the verb любить (to like / to love) is very often followed by another verb in the infinitive to say what you like or don’t like doing.

Pattern:

любить + infinitive = to like to do something
не любить + infinitive = to not like to do something

So:

Я люблю читать. – I like to read.
Я не люблю оставлять мусор. – I don’t like to leave trash.

Here оставлять is the infinitive (to leave), just like читать (to read) in the example above.

Why is it оставлять, not оставить? What’s the difference here?

Оставлять and оставить are two aspects of the same verb:

оставлять – imperfective (process / repeated action / general habit)
оставить – perfective (one complete, single action / result)

In Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке, you’re talking about the action in general, as a habit or type of behavior. For that, Russian normally uses the imperfective infinitive:

не любить + imperfective infinitive
- Я не люблю есть поздно. – I don’t like eating late.
- Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке. – I don’t like leaving trash in the park (in general).

If you said Я не люблю оставить мусор, it would sound wrong or at best very strange in standard Russian. The perfective infinitive after любить/ненавидеть/предпочитать is almost never used in this “I like/don’t like to do X” meaning.

Could I say Я не оставляю мусор в парке instead? What’s the difference from Я не люблю оставлять…?

They are different:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.
- Focus: your feelings/attitude.
- Meaning: I don’t like the idea / I dislike doing that.
Я не оставляю мусор в парке.
- Focus: your behavior / fact.
- Meaning: I don’t leave trash in the park (I never do this).

In English this is a bit like:

“I don’t like leaving trash in the park.” (attitude) vs.
“I don’t leave trash in the park.” (statement of behavior)

Both are correct sentences; they just say different things.

How is Я не люблю оставлять мусор different from Мне не нравится оставлять мусор?

Both mean “I don’t like leaving trash,” but there is a nuance in style and tone:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.
- Uses люблю / не люблю.
- A bit more direct and common in everyday speech.
- Slightly stronger, more personal-sounding: I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like this.
Мне не нравится оставлять мусор в парке.
- Uses нравится / не нравится (literally: “it is not pleasing to me”).
- Slightly more neutral and impersonal.
- Similar to I don’t find it pleasant to leave trash in the park.

In most everyday contexts, they can be used interchangeably, but не люблю often feels a touch more “I personally disapprove of this.”

Why is мусор in this form? What case is it?

Мусор here is in the accusative singular: it’s the direct object of the verb оставлять (to leave).

Verb: оставлять – to leave [something]
Question the verb answers: оставлять что? – to leave what?
Answer: мусор – trash → that’s the object, so accusative.

For inanimate masculine nouns like мусор, the accusative singular form is the same as the nominative:

Nominative: мусор (trash)
Accusative: мусор (trash)

So it looks like nominative, but grammatically it’s functioning as accusative.

Can мусор be plural, like “trashes” or “pieces of trash”?

Normally, мусор is treated as a mass noun, like “trash” or “garbage” in English, and is used mostly in the singular:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор. – I don’t like leaving trash.

There is a plural form мусоры, but it is:

rare in everyday speech, and
usually used in special meanings (types of trash, names of trash containers, or colloquial/slang meanings, including offensive ones).

If you want to emphasize multiple items, you’d typically say something like:

Я не люблю оставлять бумажки и другой мусор в парке.
I don’t like leaving bits of paper and other trash in the park.

But you still keep мусор in the singular.

Why is it в парке and not в парк or на парке?

The choice combines preposition and case:

в парке – in the park (location, where?)
- в
  - prepositional case to talk about where something is happening:
    - где? – where?
    - в парке – in the park
в парк – into the park (direction, where to?)
- в
  - accusative case for movement to a place:
    - куда? – where to?
    - в парк – to/into the park
на парке is practically never used in this context. На is “on/at,” but with “park” you almost always use в парке to mean “in the park.”

Since the sentence describes where you leave trash (location, not direction), в парке (prepositional) is correct.

What is the stress and approximate pronunciation of this sentence?

Stresses (capital letters show stressed syllables):

Я не люблю оставлЯть мУсор в пАрке.

Approximate pronunciation (Latin letters):

Ya ne lyuBLYU ostavLYAT' MUsar v PAR-ke

Notes:

я = ya
не is unstressed and sounds like something between nee and ni/ny → more like ni.
люблю: stress on the last syllable (-блю́): lyu-BLYU.
оставлять: stress on -лять (ostav-LYAT’), the unstressed o in о-ста- sounds like a: astav-LYAT'.
мусор: stress on му- (MOO-sar).
парке: stress on па- (PAR-ke), with reduced e close to i or ye.

Spoken smoothly: ya ni lyuBLYU astavLYAT' MUsar v PAR-ke.

Could the word order change, like В парке я не люблю оставлять мусор? Is that still correct?

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, and:

В парке я не люблю оставлять мусор.

is grammatically correct.

The difference is mostly emphasis:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.
- Neutral, straightforward: I don’t like leaving trash in the park.
В парке я не люблю оставлять мусор.
- Slightly emphasizes “in the park”—for example, maybe you’re contrasting it with some other place:
- Implied: In the park, I don’t like leaving trash (maybe somewhere else I’m less strict).

Context and intonation decide what is being highlighted.

Could I say Я не люблю мусор в парке instead of this sentence?

You can, but it means something a bit different:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.
- Focus: your own action of leaving trash.
- Meaning: I don’t like leaving trash in the park (I don’t like doing this myself).
Я не люблю мусор в парке.
- Focus: the fact that trash is in the park, not specifically who leaves it.
- Meaning: I don’t like trash in the park / I don’t like when there is trash in the park.

Both are correct, but they answer different questions:

What don’t you like *doing? → *оставлять мусор
What don’t you like *in general? → *мусор в парке

Why is не right before люблю and not before оставлять? Can I say Я люблю не оставлять мусор в парке?

The position of не changes the meaning:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.
- не negates люблю.
- Meaning: I don’t like leaving trash in the park. (You dislike this action.)
Я люблю не оставлять мусор в парке.
- не negates оставлять.
- Literally: I like not leaving trash in the park.
- Meaning: I like *the fact that I don’t leave trash in the park / I like not leaving trash.*
- This sounds unusual and a bit awkward, but it’s grammatically possible. It emphasizes that you enjoy not leaving trash (for example, you feel proud of being clean).

In normal conversation, to express a simple dislike of the action, you use:

Я не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.

Can I drop я and just say Не люблю оставлять мусор в парке?

Yes, in spoken Russian it is quite common to drop the pronoun я when it’s clear from the verb ending:

(Я) не люблю оставлять мусор в парке.

The -ю ending in люблю already shows that the subject is я (I). So:

With я: a bit more explicit.
Without я: slightly more informal / conversational.

Both are correct and natural, especially in context where it’s obvious you are talking about yourself.