Breakdown of Он всегда хотел стать архитектором.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
всегда
always
хотеть
to want
стать
to become
архитектор
architect
Questions & Answers about Он всегда хотел стать архитектором.
Why is архитектором in the Instrumental case here?
When you talk about taking up a profession using the verb стать (to become), the profession takes the Instrumental case. Because архитектор is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant, it takes the -ом ending.
Why do we use the imperfective хотел but the perfective стать?
The word всегда (always) tells us the "wanting" was a continuous, ongoing state in the past, so we use the imperfective хотел. But the goal of that desire was to successfully complete the action of becoming an architect (a one-time result), which requires the perfective стать.
Why is there no preposition between стать and архитектором?
Unlike English, which uses "an" in "become an architect," Russian uses no articles. Additionally, the verb стать assigns the Instrumental case directly to the noun without needing any preposition to link them.
Does the stress change when we make it архитектором?
No, the stress stays on the exact same syllable as it does in the dictionary form (архитектор). You just add the -ом to the end.
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