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In Russian in an Easy Way I came across two sentences;

  1. Мне будет стыдно, I will feel ashamed. (?)

  2. Мне будет досадно, I will feel frustrated. (?)

and I wonder why буду wasn't used.

I know есть has some weird behavior, e.g. the negative genation нет = не есть, etc, but I don't feel this is related even if it has есть in it, but no нет in it...

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  • How would you say "I feel ashamed" (present) in Russian? – Abakan Jul 27 '17 at 5:41
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    See Also: russian.stackexchange.com/questions/13647 and russian.stackexchange.com/questions/11059 – Arioch Jul 27 '17 at 8:53
  • The problem is that you are comparing them to the wrong English sentences. Try "It will be embarrassing for me." and "It will be frustrating for me." – David42 Jul 28 '17 at 1:54
  • @DavidC nice clarification. Hence the dative мне. But the issue was the it you mentioned being associated to 3rd person singular by impersonal construction – nate Jul 28 '17 at 3:18
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Russian does not normally use adjectives to convey the meaning of "ashamed" or "frustrated". These adjectives (пристыженный and раздосадованный) do exist but they are only really used when there's no other way around it, say if you need to stick an adjective in a long row of other adjectives.

Instead, Russian uses impersonal constructs which literally mean "it will be shameful to me" or "it will be frustrating to me".

English has some of these too: "it hurts", "it seems", "it occurs", but they are much more widespread in Russian: мне холодно ("I'm cold"), мне страшно ("I'm afraid"), мне весело ("I'm having fun") etc. are your first shots at conveying their respective meanings.

Some of these constructs don't even have a personal equivalent: you can say я замерз for "I'm cold" or я боюсь for "I'm afraid" but there's no easy way around мне жарко "I'm hot" or мне больно "I'm in pain".

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  • "у меня болит". Без указания на конкретное место - это детская речь, но тем не менее. – Arioch Jul 27 '17 at 8:51
  • @arioch: how is у меня болит personal? – Quassnoi♦ Jul 27 '17 at 9:03
  • I understand, somewhat, the use of dative and reflexive verbs when talking about things "happening to" me or someone. And the use of dative case for feelings... So the use of буду in these sentences, then, is separate from these concepts and is due to this "impersonal construct"? Where, as in your translation, "it will be shameful to me", the "it" has no apparent gender so is 3rd person singular? – nate Jul 27 '17 at 14:48
  • @nate: use of будет is future tense. – Quassnoi♦ Jul 27 '17 at 18:12
  • Sure, but будет instead of буду because of the impersonal construction, as in what is outlined in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, 4.3.1 for instance, or section 92 in Terence Wade's A Comprehensive Russian Grammar? – nate Jul 27 '17 at 18:58
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Это безличные предложения.

Such sentences are about something which just happens to a person or object without his/her/its participation.

One could alternatively express it like this:

Я буду стыдиться.
Я буду досадовать.

But such sentences are rare, and unusual. The most natural way in Russian to talk about such feelings is безличные предложения.

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