Quote Originally Posted by LXNDR View Post
to be honest if i ever heard such a phrase i certainly considered it odd like "я читать"

there's a phrase "мне пора" - it's time for me to go, short for "мне пора идти", which IS another example of the dative case

such sentences are called impersonal, as if some force affects or animates you, I'd guess it's a hard concept to grasp for English speakers, i myself sometimes wonder where these constructions come from, philologists probably have some good explanation

(yeah basically what Seraph's link is about)

and there're few such verbs, which necessitate Dative case:

хочется
можется (rarely used)
кажется
нравится
сдаётся (rarely used)

only хочется and можется cannot be used with a subject, the rest can

further difference between хочется and the rest (save for можется) is that хочется can have a complement in Genitive case, whereas other verbs cannot have complement at all

мне хочется мороженого - i'd like to have an ice cream, i feel like eating ice cream

so хочется isn't exactly a willful decision but rather a mood that moves you

Антону хочется отдыхать - something makes Anton want to have a rest
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there's even an odder construction with Genitive and the verb "быть" - "меня там не было" - i wasn't there, but on second thought, to this a close English equivalent not by meaning but by the concept would be it wasn't me

in Ukrainian it's a standard construction applicable to any verb, not only быть, the only difference is those have to be transitive verbs, which is not the case with быть however
Thanks for the help LXNDR.

I'll make a note of your post.

At the moment i have been working with these words in dative:

дать
советовать
помогать
звонить

Much appreciated as always - By the way,how do i say that in Russian? I have a feeling i will be using it a lot on here

All the best.