Breakdown of Приложение долго не хотело загружаться, и я увидела предупреждение об ошибке.
я
I
и
and
не
not
хотеть
to want
Questions & Answers about Приложение долго не хотело загружаться, и я увидела предупреждение об ошибке.
Why is it хотело and not хотел or хотела?
Because приложение is a neuter noun in Russian. In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number if the subject is singular.
So:
- он хотел = he wanted
- она хотела = she wanted
- оно хотело = it wanted
Since приложение means application / app and is grammatically neuter, the sentence uses хотело.
Why does Russian say не хотело загружаться? Is it really saying the app didn't want to load?
Literally, yes. But this is a very natural way in Russian to describe something that was being difficult or refusing to work.
So Приложение долго не хотело загружаться means something like:
- The app wouldn’t load for a long time
- The app just didn’t want to load
This is a kind of mild personification, and it sounds very normal in everyday Russian. English does something similar with wouldn’t:
- My computer wouldn’t start
- The door won’t open
Russian often uses не хотеть + infinitive in that same spirit.
Why is the verb загружаться reflexive? What does -ся do here?