Breakdown of Мне становится всё легче говорить по-русски.
Questions & Answers about Мне становится всё легче говорить по-русски.
Why is мне used instead of я?
Because this sentence uses an impersonal construction.
Russian often expresses feelings, states, and changing conditions with:
- dative experiencer
- state/change
So мне literally means to me / for me, and the idea is:
- Мне становится легче = It is becoming easier for me
English usually says I am finding it easier or It is getting easier for me, but Russian does not need я here.
Why is there no subject, like это?
Because Russian does not need a dummy subject the way English does.
In English, we often say:
- It is getting easier
But that it does not really refer to anything. Russian usually just leaves that kind of subject out:
- Мне становится легче
So the sentence is perfectly complete without это.
What does становится mean here?
Становится is from становиться, which means to become or to get.
Here it means:
- is becoming
- is getting
So:
- Мне становится всё легче... = It is becoming easier and easier for me...
Grammatically, становится is:
- 3rd person singular
- present tense
- imperfective
In this sentence, it is used impersonally.
Why does становится end in -ся?
Because the dictionary form of this verb is становиться.
The -ся here is just part of the verb. It does not mean a literal reflexive idea like becomes itself.
This is very common in Russian: many verbs with -ся do not translate as reflexives in English.
Compare:
- становить = to set, place, position
- становиться = to become
So for this meaning, you need становиться, not становить.
What does всё mean here? Does it mean all or everything?
Here всё means more and more, increasingly, or ever.
With comparatives, Russian often uses:
- всё лучше = better and better
- всё труднее = harder and harder
- всё легче = easier and easier
So in this sentence:
- всё легче = easier and easier
Also, this is всё, not все.
- всё = everything / more and more in this pattern
- все = all people / all things in the plural
Why is легче used here?
Легче is the comparative form of легко and лёгкий.
In this sentence, it means:
- easier
Russian often uses this comparative form in impersonal patterns like:
- Мне легче читать. = It is easier for me to read.
- Ей труднее понять. = It is harder for her to understand.
Here легче is not describing a noun, so it does not change for gender or number. That is why you do not see forms like лёгкий, лёгкая, or лёгкое.
Is легче an adjective or an adverb here?
In practical terms, it behaves like a predicative comparative.
For a learner, the simplest way to think about it is:
- it means easier
- it is used as the main word describing the situation
- it does not agree with a noun
It is closely related to both:
- лёгкий = easy, light
- легко = easily, easy
But in this sentence, it functions as the kind of word Russian commonly uses in patterns like:
- мне трудно
- ей легко
- нам легче
So you can treat легче here as the comparative form used in a state expression.
Why is говорить in the infinitive?
Because Russian uses the infinitive after words like легко, трудно, легче, лучше, and similar expressions when talking about an action in general.
So:
- говорить по-русски = to speak Russian
The whole idea is:
- It is becoming easier for me to speak Russian
Compare:
- Мне трудно понять. = It is hard for me to understand.
- Ему легче работать утром. = It is easier for him to work in the morning.
Using a finite verb such as говорю would not fit this structure.
What exactly does по-русски mean?
По-русски means in Russian or in the Russian language.
After verbs of speaking, this is a very common pattern:
- говорить по-русски = to speak Russian
- говорить по-английски = to speak English
- говорить по-французски = to speak French
So по-русски is an adverb, not an adjective.
It tells you how / in what language someone is speaking.
Is по-русски the same as на русском?
They are similar, but not always identical in feel or usage.
Very roughly:
- по-русски is especially common with speaking
- на русском often means in Russian as the language of something
Examples:
- Я говорю по-русски. = I speak Russian.
- Книга написана на русском. = The book is written in Russian.
With говорить, по-русски is the most standard and natural choice.
Could I say Мне всё легче говорить по-русски without становится?
Yes, you can, but the meaning changes slightly.
- Мне всё легче говорить по-русски. = It is easier and easier for me to speak Russian.
- Мне становится всё легче говорить по-русски. = It is becoming easier and easier for me to speak Russian.
The version with становится makes the idea of change over time more explicit.
Without становится, the sentence is still natural, but it is a bit more compressed.
Is this sentence in the present tense or the future tense?
It is in the present tense.
- становится = present tense of становиться
But the meaning is dynamic: it describes a process happening now, so in English it often translates as:
- is getting easier
- is becoming easier
If you wanted a future meaning, you could say:
- Мне станет легче говорить по-русски. = It will become easier for me to speak Russian.
How literal is the sentence structure compared with English?
Quite literal in meaning, but not in grammar.
A very literal unpacking would be something like:
- To me it becomes ever easier to speak in Russian
Natural English would usually be:
- It’s getting easier and easier for me to speak Russian.
So the main differences are:
- Russian uses мне instead of I
- Russian omits the dummy subject it
- Russian uses всё + comparative for more and more
- Russian uses the infinitive говорить for the action
Can the word order change?
Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and changes mainly affect emphasis, not the core meaning.
The neutral order is:
- Мне становится всё легче говорить по-русски.
Possible variations include:
- Говорить по-русски мне становится всё легче.
- Всё легче мне становится говорить по-русски.
These still mean roughly the same thing, but they highlight different parts of the sentence.
For a learner, the original order is a very good standard model to use.
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