Impersonal Speech

[ميسا]

Impersonal Speech

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Russians commonly use impersonal speech to express feelings or the state of something. Impersonal speech is when the person affected is in the dative case (or omitted), commonly “мне” (to me). You can often translate this to English as “I feel”, “I feel like”, “I like”, “I would like”.
Certain verbs are naturally impersonal, others are used in this way to soften their meaning. Notice that using the impersonal form softens ‘I want’ to ‘I would like’. The verb нравиться (to like) always uses in this form.
These verbs are in the reflexive form because they are expressed without an object of the sentence. (This is simply a grammatical feature of Russian because the dative case is used, and there is no accusative. When translated to English there may be an object.)
Мне нравится Москва - I like Moscow.
Мне хочется в театр - I would like to go to the theatre.
Мне не сидится дома. - I don't like to stay home.
Note: Not all impersonal speech uses this form. Some impersonal sentences are formed using other methods

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