Новая грамматическая тема: безличные конструкции с дательным падежом и глаголами на -ся, например «мне хочется».

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Breakdown of Новая грамматическая тема: безличные конструкции с дательным падежом и глаголами на -ся, например «мне хочется».

• с: with
• новый: new
• и: and

Questions & Answers about Новая грамматическая тема: безличные конструкции с дательным падежом и глаголами на -ся, например «мне хочется».

What exactly are “impersonal constructions” in Russian, and why is мне хочется called impersonal if мне (to me) is there?

In Russian, безличные конструкции (“impersonal constructions”) are sentences where there is no grammatical subject and the verb is in the 3rd person singular (often neuter), or in a special impersonal form.

In мне хочется:

• хочется is 3rd person singular and there is no subject like он/она/оно.
• мне is in the dative case and marks the experiencer (the person who feels the desire), but it is not the grammatical subject.

So the sentence is “impersonal” because grammatically it has no subject, even though someone is experiencing the feeling.

Why is the dative case (мне) used in мне хочется, instead of nominative (я)?

In these constructions, Russian uses the dative to mark the person who experiences a state or feeling, not the doer of an action.

Compare:

• Я хочу – “I want.”
  
  • я is the subject (nominative).
• Мне хочется – “I feel like (doing something) / I have a desire.”
  
  • мне is dative: “to me (it is wanting).”

The idea behind мне хочется is something like “it is wanted to me,” so Russian grammar chooses the dative, not the nominative, to express who feels the desire.