Моя цель — выучить пять новых слов каждый день.

My goal is to learn five new words every day.

Breakdown of Моя цель — выучить пять новых слов каждый день.

• мой: my
• каждый: every
• день: the day
• новый: new
• слово: the word
• цель: the goal
• выучить: to learn
• пять: five

Questions & Answers about Моя цель — выучить пять новых слов каждый день.

Why is there a dash between цель and выучить?

In Russian the dash often replaces the verb “to be” in the present tense or introduces an explanation. Here it links the noun цель (“goal”) with the infinitive выучить (“to learn”), effectively saying “My goal is to learn….”
You could also use a colon:

• Моя цель: выучить пять новых слов каждый день.
  But the dash is more common in this construction.

Why is it моя цель and not мой цель or моё цель?

Russian adjectives and possessive pronouns must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.

• цель is a feminine singular noun in the nominative case.
• The feminine nominative form of “my” is моя.
  So you say моя цель, not мой цель or моё цель.

Why is the infinitive выучить used here instead of the imperfective учить?

Russian has two aspectual forms of “to learn/teach”:

• учить (imperfective) focuses on the process/ongoing action.
• выучить (perfective) focuses on completing the action.
  Since the sentence sets a goal (“complete the learning of five new words”), you use the perfective выучить to emphasize that you want to finish that task every day.

Why is it пять новых слов and not пять новые слова?

In Russian cardinal numbers affect the case of the noun (and any adjectives):

• After пять (and all numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc.), the counted noun goes into the genitive plural.
• Any adjective modifying that noun also goes into genitive plural.
  So you get:
  • пять (5) + новых (gen. pl. of “new”) + слов (gen. pl. of “words”).

What case is день in каждый день, and why?

Although день looks like nominative, in time expressions without a preposition (answering “when?”) Russian normally uses the accusative.

• каждый is the masculine accusative singular of “every,” matching день in accusative singular.
  Together каждый день means “every day.”

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Каждый день моя цель — выучить пять новых слов?

Russian word order is quite flexible. You can certainly say:

• Каждый день моя цель — выучить пять новых слов.
  or
• Моя цель каждый день — выучить пять новых слов.
  Shifting каждый день changes the emphasis but keeps the meaning.

Are there alternative ways to express this idea in Russian?

Yes. A few examples:

• Я хочу каждый день выучить по пять новых слов. (I want to learn five new words each day.)
• Моя цель в том, чтобы выучить пять новых слов каждый день. (My goal is to learn five new words every day.)
• Каждый день я ставлю себе цель выучить пять новых слов. (Every day I set myself the goal of learning five new words.)

Can I replace the dash with это as in Моя цель — это выучить…?

Yes. Adding это before the infinitive is possible and slightly more emphatic:

• Моя цель — это выучить пять новых слов каждый день.
  Both forms are correct; the version without это is just a bit more concise.