Word
Я хочу лечь на этот матрас.
Meaning
I want to lie down on this mattress.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Я хочу лечь на этот матрас.
я
I
этот
this [f: эта, n: это]
хотеть
to want
на
on, at / by (transport) / to (a place) / to (in answer to)
Questions & Answers about Я хочу лечь на этот матрас.
Why do we use the Accusative case (на этот матрас) instead of the Prepositional case here?
Because лечь (to lie down) is a verb of assuming a position, which implies motion or direction ("onto" the mattress). Direction takes the Accusative case. If you were already resting there, you would use the verb лежать (to be lying) with the Prepositional case (на этом матрасе).
Why use the perfective verb лечь instead of the imperfective ложиться?
After хочу (I want), we generally use the perfective aspect when we want to complete a single, specific action. The speaker wants to successfully achieve the state of being laid down, rather than focusing on the ongoing process of doing it.
The imperfective verb ложиться has a reflexive -ся ending. Why doesn't лечь have one?
Лечь is simply an irregular verb. Even though it is the perfective partner to the reflexive ложиться and represents the same intransitive action (positioning yourself), it evolved differently and does not take a reflexive suffix.
Why doesn't the phrase этот матрас change its ending in the Accusative case?
Матрас is a masculine inanimate noun. In Russian, inanimate masculine nouns (and their modifying adjectives or pronouns, like этот) look exactly the same in the Accusative case as they do in the Nominative case.