Impersonal construction
- Impersonal sentences in Russian
are sentences that don't have a grammatical subject.
- In English, impersonal sentences have a grammatical subject, but
not a logical one:
It is very cold in January.
- The subject, it, in this sentence does not refer to anything or
anyone in particular. Russian often uses an adverb as the
predicate in impersonal constructions:
Здесь холодно. It is cold here.
Завтра будет тепло. It will be warm tomorrow.
- Russian often uses
impersonal construction when describing how a person feels. The
person in such constructions will be in the dative case:
Мне холодно. I feel cold
Сергею там было интересно. It was interesting for Sergej there.
Наташе здесь будет холодно. Natasha will feel cold here.
- Another way to form an impersonal construction in Russian is with
the reflexive form of the verb хотеть - хочеться.
- The verb хочеться in this construction will mean 'to feel like
(doing something)'.
- Look at the examples below:
Я чочу смотреть телевизор. I want to watch TV.
Мне хочется смотреть телевизор. I feel like wathing TV.
- Notice that the person who 'feels like' doing something is in the
dative case.