Learn Hardcore Russian: Друзья часто приглашают меня в кино, когда им хочется отвлечься от работы. - Friends often invite me to the movies when they feel like taking their mind off work.

они хотят отвлечься – they want to take a break (more straightforward, volitional, “they want”).
им хочется отвлечься – they feel like taking a break (more about mood, impulse, inner feeling, softer/less direct).

Хочется sounds more spontaneous and less “rationally decided,” closer to “they’re in the mood to…” in English. It’s also somewhat more polite/softer than blunt они хотят in many contexts.

Why is the verb хочется in this form and not хочут or something with они?

Хочется is an impersonal verb form. In Russian, some states and feelings are often expressed impersonally:

мне хочется – I feel like it (literally: it is wanted to me)
ему хочется – he feels like it
им хочется – they feel like it

There is no grammatical subject; хочется stays the same regardless of who the “experiencer” is. Only the dative pronoun changes:

мне хочется, тебе хочется, ему/ей хочется, нам хочется, вам хочется, им хочется

Why is отвлечься reflexive? What’s the difference between отвлечь and отвлечься?

The base verb отвлечь means “to distract (someone)”:

отвлечь кого-то от работы – to distract someone from work.

With -ся, отвлечься becomes reflexive:
отвлечься (от чего?) – to distract oneself / to take one’s mind off (something), to take a break.

In this sentence, the friends are distracting themselves from work, not somebody else, so Russian naturally uses the reflexive form отвлечься.

Why is the infinitive отвлечься (perfective) used after хочется, and not отвлекаться (imperfective)?

With хочется, you usually use a perfective infinitive when you’re talking about a single, concrete action or result:

им хочется отвлечься от работы – they feel like taking a break / getting their mind off work (a specific act of changing state).

Отвлечься (perfective) focuses on the result: “to (manage to) switch off / detach from work.”
Отвлекаться (imperfective) would emphasize an ongoing process: “to be distracting oneself, to keep getting distracted.”

Here the idea is: When they feel like taking a break (doing that act), they invite me to the cinema, so perfective отвлечься fits best.

Why is от работы used, and why is работы in the genitive case?

The preposition от (“from”) usually requires the genitive:

от чего? – from what?
от работы – from work

The verb отвлечься от чего? also specifically takes от + genitive:

отвлечься от проблем – take your mind off problems
отвлечься от учебы – take a break from studying
отвлечься от работы – take a break from work

So работы is genitive singular after от, following both the preposition and the verb’s government.

Why is it в кино and not в кинотеатр or just кино?

All of these can appear in Russian, but the nuances differ:

в кино – colloquial, very common; literally “to the cinema,” but the phrase usually means “to go see a movie (at the movies)” in general.
в кинотеатр – more literal, “to the movie theater (building).” Neutral, just a bit more concrete/formal.
кино without a preposition is just “cinema / film” as a noun, not “to the cinema.”

In everyday speech, пойти в кино / пригласить в кино is the standard way to say “go (invite someone) to the movies,” so в кино is the most natural choice here.

Why is приглашают (imperfective) used, not пригласят or пригласили?

Приглашают is present tense, imperfective, and here it describes a habitual, repeated action:

Друзья часто приглашают меня… – My friends often invite me… (they do this regularly).

If you used:

пригласят (future, perfective) – would mean will invite (once, in the future).
пригласили (past, perfective) – invited (completed action in the past).

The adverb часто (“often”) naturally goes with the imperfective to express repeated or usual behavior.

Could you explain the word order Друзья часто приглашают меня? Could it be Друзья меня часто приглашают?

Both are grammatically correct; Russian allows flexible word order.

Друзья часто приглашают меня… – neutral, the focus is fairly evenly spread; часто modifies the whole action, “often invite (me).”
Друзья меня часто приглашают… – also possible, but меня is slightly more highlighted (as the one being invited). In some contexts it might feel a bit more contrastive, like “It’s me they often invite.”

In everyday speech, Друзья часто приглашают меня… sounds very natural and neutral for “My friends often invite me….”

Why do we need the comma before когда?

Когда им хочется отвлечься от работы is a subordinate clause of time (“when they feel like taking a break from work”).

In Russian, subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like когда, потому что, если, что, etc. are normally separated from the main clause by a comma.

So the structure is:

Main clause: Друзья часто приглашают меня в кино
Subordinate time clause: когда им хочется отвлечься от работы

→ hence the comma.

What is the role of часто in the sentence? Where else could it go?

Часто means “often” and modifies the verb приглашают.

Most natural positions here:

Друзья часто приглашают меня в кино… (very natural)
Часто друзья приглашают меня в кино… (puts some emphasis on “often”)
Друзья приглашают меня в кино довольно часто… (slightly different construction, but still fine)

Putting часто right before the verb is standard. Other positions are possible but may change emphasis or sound less neutral.

What is the grammatical role and case of меня in приглашают меня?

Меня is the first-person singular pronoun in the accusative case, functioning as the direct object of the verb приглашают:

кто? что делает? – друзья приглашают
кого? что? – меня

So:

я – nominative (subject form: I)
меня – genitive/accusative form (here, direct object: me)

In приглашать кого? (to invite whom?) the answer takes the accusative → меня.