Bitte stell die Gießkanne zurück.

Stell is the imperative form used when speaking to one person informally (du).

The verb is stellen.
For the du-imperative, German often drops the ending, so:

• du stellst = you put/place
• Stell! = put/place!

You may sometimes also see stelle in older, more formal, or more regional usage, but stell is the normal everyday form here.

This sentence is addressed to one person in the informal form, so the hidden subject is du.

So the full idea is:

• (Du) stell die Gießkanne zurück.

If you were talking to:

• several people informally: Stellt die Gießkanne zurück.
• one person formally: Stellen Sie die Gießkanne zurück.

Die Gießkanne is the direct object of the sentence — it is the thing being moved.

The noun Gießkanne is feminine, so:

• nominative: die Gießkanne
• accusative: die Gießkanne

For feminine nouns, the article does not change between nominative and accusative, so die stays die.

Zurück means back.

In this sentence, it gives the idea of putting something back where it belongs or returning it to its place.

So stell ... zurück is like:

• put it back
• put it back in place
• return it

A learner may also notice the related verb zurückstellen. In many sentences, German splits this type of verb, so one part appears near the beginning and zurück goes to the end.

Because German often puts the separated part of a separable verb at the end.

The verb here is closely related to zurückstellen:

• infinitive: zurückstellen
• imperative: Stell ... zurück.

This is very common in German:

• Mach die Tür auf. = Open the door.
• Ruf mich an. = Call me.
• Stell die Gießkanne zurück. = Put the watering can back.

So the final position of zurück is normal German word order.

German often distinguishes placement verbs more precisely than English.

• stellen = to place something in an upright/standing position
• legen = to lay something down flat
• setzen = to set something into a sitting position

A Gießkanne is normally thought of as something that stands upright, so stellen is the natural choice.

That is something English usually does not mark so clearly, since English often just uses put.

Bitte makes the sentence sound like a polite request rather than a harsh command.

Without bitte, Stell die Gießkanne zurück. can sound more direct.
With bitte, it becomes softer:

• Bitte stell die Gießkanne zurück.

German imperatives are very common and are not automatically rude, but bitte is often added to sound friendly or polite.

Grammatically, it is an imperative, so it is a command form.

In actual use, though, it can function as either:

• a direct instruction
• a polite request

That depends on tone, context, and words like bitte.

So structurally it is a command, but pragmatically it may feel like a request.

Gießkanne is pronounced roughly like GEESS-kah-nuh.

A few useful points:

• ie in German usually sounds like a long ee
• ß is pronounced like ss
• so gieß sounds like geess

The letter ß is called Eszett or scharfes S.
It does not have its own special sound; it represents an s sound.

Yes, but stell is more natural in everyday German.

Both are understandable as imperatives to du:

• Stell die Gießkanne zurück. = normal modern everyday usage
• Stelle die Gießkanne zurück. = possible, but more formal, old-fashioned, or stylistically marked

So for most learners, stell is the form to remember.

Yes. Zurückstellen can also mean to postpone or to defer, depending on context.

For example:

• Wir müssen die Entscheidung zurückstellen. = We have to postpone the decision.

But with a physical object like die Gießkanne, the meaning is clearly put back or return to its place.

So context tells you which meaning is intended.