How acceptable is to omit pronouns in certain verb usages?

Question

That's it, for example, is it acceptable to say Люблю тебя, or do you have to use я Люблю тебя. Or читал книгу instead of Я читал книгу?

Answer 1

In the Russian language, you have essentially two "paths"; one is a formal and the other is informal. In an informal setting it would be acceptable to omit the pronoun. You can do this because once you conjugate the verb, the person or "subject" is already known by how the verb sounds. An example would be, among friends: " What are you doing?" the correct Russian would be "Что ты делфешь?", however it is perfectly normal to say "Что делаешь?". However in a formal setting I would not recommend omitting the pronoun, unless you are ready for a lecture! :) Надеюсь что это было полезно! Все доброго!

Answer 2

Grammatically, it is acceptable. The issue is with semantics. The phrase would have a different semantic feeling. Omissions are often used in poetry, in operatic speech. When you omit a pronoun subject in Я люблю тебя, the emphasis moves from Я to the verb or the object, depending on the intonation. Читал книгу or similar expressions can be used in a couple of cases: if someone asks you, for example, what you did over the weekend, and you are going through the list, you don't need to say I read a book, I went to see a play, etc. You can skip Я as it is understood from the context that you are speaking about yourself. Another case can be when later in your story you have the word "suddenly". Сижу, смотрю телевизор. Вдруг слышу ужасный шум. Again, it would be perfectly grammatical to use the personal pronoun Я. But if it is understood from the context that you are talking about yourself, you don't need to repeat it all the time. In other case, like in second and third person, if your story has multiple characters, it may become confusing to the listener who you are talking about, so it is better to use names or pronouns.