Не то чтобы мне хотелось покупать всё новое, но без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее.

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Breakdown of Не то чтобы мне хотелось покупать всё новое, но без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее.

• мне: me
• хороший: good
• но: but

Questions & Answers about Не то чтобы мне хотелось покупать всё новое, но без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее.

What does Не то чтобы mean here?

Не то чтобы is a very common Russian phrase used to soften or qualify what comes next. It often means something like:

• It’s not that...
• Not exactly that...
• It’s not really that...

So the speaker is not making a strong direct claim like I don’t want to buy new things. Instead, they are saying something more nuanced: it’s not exactly that I want to keep buying everything new, but...

This structure is useful when you want to reject a simple explanation and replace it with a more precise one.

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Why is it мне хотелось, not я хотел?

Russian often uses хотелось with the experiencer in the dative case:

• мне хотелось = I felt like / I wanted
• literally, something like to me it was wanted

This sounds softer, less direct, and often more natural in reflective speech than я хотел.

Compare:

• Я хотел купить... = I wanted to buy...
  More direct and straightforward.
• Мне хотелось купить... = I felt like buying... / I had the desire to buy...
  More emotional, softer, sometimes more tentative.

So мне хотелось fits well with the overall hedging tone created by Не то чтобы.

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