Word
Мне хочется ненадолго выйти на балкон.
Meaning
I feel like going out onto the balcony for a little while.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Мне хочется ненадолго выйти на балкон.
мне
me
балкон
the balcony
хотеться
to feel like
выйти
to go out
Questions & Answers about Мне хочется ненадолго выйти на балкон.
Why is it мне хочется and not я хочу?
Both can mean something like I want, but they are not used in exactly the same way.
- Я хочу выйти на балкон = I want to go out onto the balcony
- Мне хочется выйти на балкон = I feel like going out onto the balcony
So хочется often sounds a bit softer, more like a passing desire, mood, or urge.
Grammatically, хочется is an impersonal form. Instead of saying I want, Russian says something closer to to me, it is desired or I feel like. That is why мне is used.
Why is мне in the dative case?
Because хочется is used impersonally.
In this structure, the person experiencing the feeling is put in the dative:
- мне хочется = I feel like
- тебе хочется = you feel like
- ему хочется = he feels like
So мне does not mean me in the direct-object sense. It marks the person to whom the feeling happens.
What exactly is хочется?