A Quickie Before I Go Off To Snooze

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

Я мурлыкаю потому что я хочу к.

Would you put the 'k' at the end or not? Just wondering.

Shandee ♥

Comments

[carminagitana.livejournal.com]

Only if "k" is a person :)

[gordin.livejournal.com]

First of all, the second "я" looks a bit needless.
What about к, you can put "..." after it, then it won't seem as an initial of someone.

[oryx_and_crake]

"к" here does not make any sense whatsoever.
If you tried to say "I purr because I want to", it will be "мурлыкаю, потому что хочу" (if you want to translate as close to the original phrase as possible, but no one actually would say it this way) or rather "хочу и мурлыкаю".

[kasak.livejournal.com]

"I purr becuse I want to."

Is this what you're trying to say? If so, it should be:

(Я) мурлыкаю потому, что хочу.

In Russian, "K" means "to" in the sense of "towards," like к берегу, "to/towards the shore." It is never used as in the "to" from the English infinitive.

[kasak.livejournal.com]

Typically, when talking about yourself, you don't use я that often, because if you use it too often, it might seem like you're somewhat vain, so try to get used to just using the я verb forms without the я; if it's present or future tense, then it will be clear that you're talking about yourself.

Just letting you know.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Short, but comprehensive.

[simonff.livejournal.com]

Besides, in Russian the prepositions never (well, ALMOST never) float by themselves (as in the English "because I want to").

Extra credit if you can think of a rather vulgar phrase that ends in a preposition. :)

[cema.livejournal.com]

Мурлыкаю, потому что мне хочется. :-)

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

Even in english to has two roles:

* A particle that marks infinitives
* A preposition

The original English phrase seems to be "I hum because I want to" which is a short form for "I hum because I want to hum". Here "to" is a _particle_ (and not a floated preposition like some have suggested). The infinitive is gone but "to" holds a spot for it.

When we turn to Russian language we find several crucial differences. First of all, it does not have an equivalent for infinitval "to". You just use the infinitive verb for (which usually ends with -ть or -ться).
So we get

Я мурлыкаю, потому что я хочу мурлыкать

(Note the comma after мурлыкаю. In Russian you _have_ to put commas between clauses in a sentence. This is because the language has free word order and without extra punctuation things get ambiguous pretty easily)

Second, Russian language likes to skip subjects if they are can be easily understood from context, especially if the subject is expressed by a pronoun. Unlike English (and like many other european languages) we can tell which pronoun was skipped by looking at the verb. Verbs always agree in person and number (and gender in Past Tense) with their subject anyway. So we get:

Мурлыкаю, потому что хочу мурлыкать

Third, like in English, the second "мурлыкать" can also be easily omitted. The sentence sounds much better without it. So we get:

Мурлыкаю, потому что хочу

Fourth, Russian language likes passive forms much more than English. This is especially true when it comes to verbs that are not really actions, such as "to want". When somebody asks you "what are you doing?" you cannot really answer "I am wanting a bigger salary". Wanting is not something you _do_. Instead, wanting, linguistically, is more like a mind-state, similar to being hungry, thirsty etc. While doesn't really matter in English, Russian has a special form for such verbs. Instead of
я хочу ...
You'd say
мне хочется ...

So we get:
Мурлыкаю, потому что мне хочется

Instead of nominative case that indicates a "doer", we get a dative case that indicated being "on the receiving end". (Of course this is not absolute, but that's how things tend to be)

Note: Nominative form is still perfectly valid, by the way, but it is much more assertive. So
Мурлыкаю, потому что хочу
sounds a bit as if someone asked you to please keep it quiet and you insist on humming anyway. If that's not the case then "мне хочется" is better.

[yms.livejournal.com]

Fourth, Russian language likes passive forms much more than English.

You mean "impersonal", don't you?

We've always been told that it's English that likes passive forms more than Russian :) ("the work is done" etc.)

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

Lol, no K isn't a person :-P
Shandee ♥

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

Ok thanks :-)
Shandee ♥

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

okie dokie :-)
Shandee ♥

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot :-)
Shandee ♥

[shandeegoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, I had no idea. Thanks for lettin me know :-)
I like ur icon btw :-) You into Bollywood movies?
Shandee ♥

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

:You mean "impersonal", don't you?

Here it should have been "impersonal", yes. You are right.

:We've always been told that it's English that likes passive forms more than Russian :) ("the work is done" etc.)

In my experience, Russians do like their passives. You can often tell an English text written by a Russian by its abundance of passive voice (that and missng articles :) My own comment is an example. I did try to cut down on passives though.
Mind you, in both languages active voice sounds more dynamic and to the point, it's a good style and also easier to learn.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

Generally English teachers tell you to avoid the passive voice whenever possible. Sometimes you have to use it when there's no actor, though.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

could you expand on the difference between хочy and хочется more, please (maybe with other examples, as your explanation is good)? I've been curious about that for awhile.

I'm native russian =)

[aeho269.livejournal.com]

When you put "k" you should add the person you wanna come to.

If you wanna express the emotion "to stay closer" you could write:
Я мурлыкаю, потому что хочу к кому-то.

But if you wanna express "I do it coz I want it", so:

Я мурлыкаю, потому что мне хочется.
or
Я мурлыкаю от того, что захотелось.

Я мурлычу

[solito.livejournal.com]

Please note that the right form is мурлычу - though мурлыкаю is also acceptable.

Re: Я мурлычу

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

Наконец то! Хоть словарь и не указывает ошибку в "я мурлыкаю", звучит это так же как "я плакаю"?
Конечно правильно будет "я мурлычу" и "я плачу".

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

Я мурлычу, потому что так хочу.