Мне нравится эта ткань, потому что она почти не мнётся.

Нравиться works differently from to like in English. Literally, мне нравится эта ткань is closer to this fabric is pleasing to me.

• мне = to me (dative case)
• нравится = is pleasing / appeals
• эта ткань = the thing that is pleasing

So Russian expresses this idea as:

[to whom] + нравится + [what is liked]

You can say я люблю..., but that usually means I love..., and it is often stronger or more emotional. For a simple opinion about a material, мне нравится is more natural.

Because the subject is эта ткань, which is singular.

With нравиться, the verb agrees with the thing being liked, not with the person who likes it.

• Мне нравится эта ткань. = I like this fabric.
  
  • эта ткань is singular, so нравится is singular.

Compare:

• Мне нравятся эти ткани. = I like these fabrics.
  
  • эти ткани is plural, so нравятся is plural.

This is one of the most important things to remember with нравиться.

Because эта ткань is the grammatical subject of нравится, so it stays in the nominative case.

In English, we say I like this fabric, where this fabric looks like the object. But in Russian, with нравиться, the structure is different:

• мне = to me
• эта ткань = this fabric (subject)

So Russian is really saying:

This fabric pleases me.

That is why it is:

• эта ткань = nominative

and not:

• эту ткань = accusative

Ткань is a feminine noun. One clue is that it ends in a soft sign ь and belongs to a group of feminine nouns often called the third declension.

Not every noun ending in ь is feminine, but many are. You usually learn the gender together with the word.

Here, you can also see the feminine gender from the demonstrative:

• эта ткань = this fabric

The form эта is feminine singular, so it matches ткань.

Because она refers back to ткань, and pronouns in Russian agree with the grammatical gender of the noun they replace.

• ткань is feminine
• so the pronoun is она = she / it

In English, we use it for things. In Russian, nouns have grammatical gender, so a word like fabric is replaced by:

• он if the noun is masculine
• она if it is feminine
• оно if it is neuter

So она here simply means it, referring to ткань.

Потому что means because.

In this sentence:

Мне нравится эта ткань, потому что она почти не мнётся.
= I like this fabric because it hardly wrinkles.

It introduces the reason.

This is a very common and natural way to say because in everyday Russian. There are other ways to express cause, but потому что is the standard, straightforward choice.

Почти не means almost not or, more naturally in English, hardly / barely.

So:

• она почти не мнётся = it hardly wrinkles
• literally: it almost does not wrinkle

This combination is very common in Russian:

• почти не понимаю = I hardly understand
• почти не ем сладкое = I hardly eat sweets

So почти softens the negation and gives the sense of not much / hardly at all.

Мнётся comes from the verb мяться.

Basic form:

• мяться = to get wrinkled, to crease, to crumple easily

Form in the sentence:

• мнётся = gets wrinkled / wrinkles
• 3rd person singular present tense

So:

• она мнётся = it wrinkles / it gets creased

Because the subject is она (referring to ткань), the verb is in 3rd person singular.

The ending -ся is the reflexive marker.

In many verbs, -ся can have several related meanings. Here it gives the sense that the fabric wrinkles itself / becomes wrinkled, rather than someone actively wrinkling it.

Compare the idea:

• мять = to crumple / wrinkle something
• мяться = to get crumpled / to wrinkle easily

So мнётся describes a property of the fabric: it tends to become wrinkled.

In English, we often translate this kind of reflexive Russian verb with an intransitive verb or a passive-like expression:

• This fabric wrinkles easily
• This fabric gets creased easily

The sentence is describing a general characteristic of the fabric, not a single completed event.

• мяться is imperfective
• мнётся therefore means something like wrinkles / tends to wrinkle / gets wrinkled

This is exactly what you want when talking about qualities or habits:

• Эта ткань мнётся. = This fabric wrinkles.
• Эта ткань почти не мнётся. = This fabric hardly wrinkles.

Russian uses the imperfective very often for repeated, typical, or general behavior.

Мнётся is pronounced roughly like mnyo-tsa.

A few useful points:

• ё is always stressed
• ё sounds like yo
• the final -тся / -ётся in speech is pronounced like -ца / -оца

So мнётся sounds approximately like:

м-н’о-ца

The letter ё matters because it shows both the pronunciation and the stress. In printed Russian, ё is sometimes replaced by е, but the correct pronunciation here is still with yo:

• мнётся, not мнется

Yes. That is a very natural translation.

The Russian phrase почти не мнётся can be translated in several good ways depending on style:

• hardly wrinkles
• doesn’t wrinkle much
• doesn’t crease much
• is almost wrinkle-free (a bit freer as a translation)

All of these capture the same idea: the fabric resists wrinkling.