Questions & Answers about Мне хочется остаться дома и почитать книгу.
Why does the sentence start with Мне instead of Я?
Russian often expresses “want/feel like” with an impersonal construction: Мне хочется… literally means To me, it is desired / I feel like….
So мне is dative case (“to me”), not the subject я (“I”).
What exactly does хочется mean, and how is it different from хочу?
- Я хочу… = a direct, decided “I want…” (more straightforward, sometimes more demanding).
- Мне хочется… = “I feel like… / I’d like to…” (more about mood, desire, inclination).
It often sounds softer and more natural for “I feel like staying in.”
Why is хочется in the form with -ся?
The -ся makes it a reflexive/impersonal-style verb here. With хотеться, Russian typically uses:
- Мне хочется + infinitive (common pattern)
rather than a normal “subject + verb” structure. It helps create the “I feel like…” meaning.
Why do остаться and почитать appear in the infinitive?