Breakdown of Это мой матрас, нельзя ложиться на него.
это
this / it is
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
мой
my (мой, моя, моё) / mine
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
нельзя
one must not
ложиться
to lie down, to go to bed
матрас
mattress
Questions & Answers about Это мой матрас, нельзя ложиться на него.
Why do we use the Accusative case (на него) instead of the Prepositional case if we are lying on the mattress?
In Russian, verbs that describe assuming a position (like ложиться, to lie down) are treated as verbs of motion. You are moving your body onto a destination. Because of this directed motion, we use на + the Accusative case. If you were already resting on the mattress, you would use a different verb and the Prepositional case (лежать на нём).
Why is the imperfective verb ложиться used here instead of the perfective лечь?
The word нельзя can mean either 'it is forbidden' or 'it is impossible'. When it means 'forbidden' or 'you must not' (as a rule), it is almost always followed by an imperfective verb like ложиться. If it meant it was physically impossible to lie down, you would use the perfective лечь.
Why does the pronoun have an 'н' at the beginning (на него) instead of just being на его?
Whenever a third-person pronoun (like его, её, or их) comes directly after a preposition (like на, в, or с), Russian adds an н- to the beginning to make it easier to pronounce. Since матрас is a masculine noun, we use the masculine accusative pronoun его, which becomes него after the preposition на.
There is no word for 'you' in the second half of the sentence. How does Russian express 'you cannot' here?
The word нельзя is an impersonal word, meaning it doesn't take a grammatical subject. It translates best to 'it is forbidden' or 'it is not allowed'. When stating a general rule that applies to anyone, Russian just uses нельзя plus an infinitive verb, which we naturally translate into English as 'you cannot' or 'one cannot'.
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