Learn Hardcore Russian: Сегодня вечером мне хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм. - This evening I feel like switching off a bit and watching a movie.

Я хочу + infinitive / noun
- Literally: I want.
- Subject я (I) in the nominative, verb хочу from хотеть.
Мне хочется + infinitive
- Literally: To me, it is wanted / It feels like (to me) I want to…
- мне is dative (to me).
- хочется is an impersonal form of хотеться, not я хочу.

In Сегодня вечером мне хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм, the speaker uses the impersonal, softer form with мне in the dative. Grammatically, the sentence doesn’t have a clear personal subject like я; instead, the state of wanting is happening to the person (to me).

Both Я хочу… and Мне хочется… are correct, but they have slightly different nuances (see the next question).

What is the difference in nuance between мне хочется and я хочу?

Both express wanting, but they feel different:

Я хочу…
- Direct, clear statement: I want…
- Neutral, can be a bit more firm or “goal‑oriented”.
- Very common in everyday speech.
Мне хочется…
- Softer, more emotional: I feel like…, I have a desire to…
- Often used for spontaneous, situational wishes, especially with things like eating, drinking, watching something, going somewhere.
- Sounds less demanding; more about mood or a passing desire.

In this sentence, Мне хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм feels like:
This evening I kind of feel like disconnecting a bit and watching a movie, rather than a strong decision or demand.

What exactly is хочется grammatically? Why that ending?

Хочется comes from the verb хотеться, which is the reflexive version of хотеть (to want).

Key points:

хотеться is used mainly in impersonal constructions:
- Мне хочется спать. – I feel like sleeping.
- Ему не хочется работать. – He doesn’t feel like working.
Form хочется is:
- 3rd person singular, present tense, reflexive:
  - хочется ~ “it is wanted / there is a feeling of wanting”.
- No explicit subject doing the action. Instead, the experiencer is in the dative:
  - мне, тебе, ему, нам, etc.

Patterns:

Мне хочется есть. – I feel like eating.
Нам не хочется выходить. – We don’t feel like going out.

So Сегодня вечером мне хочется… literally is something like:
“Tonight, to me, it is wanted to…”, which we naturally translate as “Tonight I feel like…”.

Why is мне used in the dative case here?

Because with хочется / хотеться, the person who experiences the desire is expressed in the dative case:

Мне хочется – To me, it is wanted.
Тебе хочется – To you, it is wanted.
Ему / ей хочется – To him / her, it is wanted.
Нам хочется, вам хочется, им хочется.

This is the same pattern as with many expressions of physical or emotional state:

Мне холодно. – I am cold. (To me, it is cold.)
Ей грустно. – She is sad. (To her, it is sad.)
Им весело. – They are having fun. (To them, it is fun.)

So мне is dative because the grammar treats the feeling of wanting as something that happens to you, not something you actively do as a grammatical subject.

What does отвлечься literally mean, and why does it have -ся at the end?

Отвлечься is a reflexive verb:

Non‑reflexive base: отвлечь – to distract someone/something.
Reflexive: отвлечься – to distract oneself, to take one’s mind off things, to switch attention.

So:

отвлечь кого‑то – to distract someone.
- Не отвлекай меня! – Don’t distract me!
отвлечься – to get distracted / to take a break mentally.
- Мне нужно отвлечься. – I need to take my mind off things.

In this sentence, немного отвлечься means “to switch off a bit, to get one’s mind off everyday worries”. The -ся shows that the action is directed back on the subject (here, the speaker): they want to distract themselves, not someone else.

Why is it немного отвлечься, and what does немного add here?

Немного literally means a little, a bit, not much.

In немного отвлечься, it softens the idea:

отвлечься – to disconnect, to take your mind off something.
немного отвлечься – to disconnect a bit, to take a short / small mental break.

Nuance:

Without немного:
- Мне хочется отвлечься. – I want to switch off / get away mentally.
With немного:
- Мне хочется немного отвлечься. – I just want to switch off a bit, not in a big drastic way.

You can leave немного out and the sentence is still perfectly correct, but with немного it sounds more modest and casual, like a small, reasonable wish.

Position:

Мне хочется немного отвлечься. (usual position)
Мне хочется отвлечься немного. (possible, a bit less common/stylistically different here)

Why is посмотреть used instead of смотреть? What’s the difference?

This is about aspect:

смотреть – imperfective: to watch (in general, process).
посмотреть – perfective: to watch (once / as a complete action).

After хочется / хочу, you can use either aspect, but the meaning changes:

Мне хочется смотреть фильм.
- I feel like watching a film (as an ongoing activity, maybe emphasizing the process, e.g. “I like watching films in general”).
Мне хочется посмотреть фильм.
- I feel like watching a (whole) film (one concrete film, as a complete event, from start to finish).

In the given sentence, посмотреть фильм is about doing that one whole action this evening: watching a movie as an event. That’s why the perfective посмотреть is natural here.

Why is there no preposition before фильм? What case is фильм in?

Фильм here is the direct object of the verb посмотреть, so it is in the accusative case.

For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular usually looks the same as the nominative:

Nominative: фильм
Accusative: фильм

That is why you don’t see any change in form or a preposition. Russian often does not use a preposition with direct objects:

читать книгу – to read a book
смотреть фильм – to watch a film
есть суп – to eat soup

So: посмотреть фильм = “to watch a film” (film is direct object, accusative, no preposition).

What form is вечером in сегодня вечером, and why is it used instead of something like в вечер?

Вечером is the instrumental form of вечер (evening), but here it functions as an adverbial form meaning in the evening / this evening / tonight.

Russian often uses a noun in instrumental or a special adverbial form to express time when something happens:

утром – in the morning
днём – in the daytime
вечером – in the evening
ночью – at night
зимой – in winter
летом – in summer

You do not say в вечер in this sense; instead you say вечером or сегодня вечером (literally “today, in the evening”).

So Сегодня вечером means “this evening / tonight”.

Is the word order Сегодня вечером мне хочется… fixed? Can I say it differently?

Russian word order is flexible, especially with adverbs of time and expressions like мне хочется.

All of these are grammatically correct, with slightly different emphasis:

Сегодня вечером мне хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм.
- Neutral: first gives the time, then the feeling.
Мне сегодня вечером хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм.
- Slightly stronger focus on мне (it’s me, this evening, who feels like doing that).
Мне хочется сегодня вечером немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм.
- Focus on the desire, then the time; very natural too.
Мне хочется немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм сегодня вечером.
- The time comes at the end, like an afterthought: “to watch a film, this evening.”

In everyday speech, the original version and Мне сегодня вечером хочется… are probably the most common‑sounding.

Why is there only one хочется for both немного отвлечься and посмотреть фильм?

Because both infinitives (отвлечься and посмотреть) are governed by the same verb хочется and joined by и (and).

Structure:

Мне хочется [немного отвлечься] и [посмотреть фильм].

In English we do the same:

“I want to relax a bit and watch a film.”
- One want, two infinitives linked by and.

In Russian, you could theoretically repeat хочется, but it would usually sound redundant in this simple case:

Мне хочется немного отвлечься и хочется посмотреть фильм.
- Grammatically okay, but stylistically clumsy here.

Could I say Сегодня вечером я хочу немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм instead? Is that correct?

Yes, it is correct:

Сегодня вечером я хочу немного отвлечься и посмотреть фильм.

Difference in feel:

With я хочу:
- Slightly more direct and matter‑of‑fact: “I want to…”.
- Feels a bit more like a plan or decision.
With мне хочется:
- Softer, more about mood or feeling: “I feel like…”.

Both are natural. Native speakers use both; choice depends on style and how strong or soft you want to sound. In casual speech, Мне вечером хочется… can feel a bit more “emotional” or “introspective”.

Are there any other common words I could use instead of немного here, and how would they change the nuance?

Yes, several adverbs can play a similar role; each has its own flavor:

чуть-чуть отвлечься
- Very colloquial and gentle: “just a tiny bit”.
- Мне хочется чуть-чуть отвлечься… – I just want to switch off a tiny bit.
слегка отвлечься
- More bookish / formal: “slightly, mildly”.
- Less emotional, more neutral.
немножко отвлечься
- Diminutive of немного, often a bit more informal and soft: “a little bit”.
- Very common in speech.

Overall:

немного – neutral “a bit”.
немножко / чуть-чуть – more colloquial, softer, friendly.
слегка – slightly more formal or literary.

All could replace немного here without changing the basic meaning of the sentence.