Learn Hardcore Russian: Я хочу посмотреть фильм после ужина.

Russian verbs come in pairs of aspects: imperfective (смотреть) for ongoing or habitual actions, and perfective (посмотреть) for single, completed actions. Here посмотреть expresses the intention to complete watching the film once after dinner.

Why do we use the infinitive after хочу?

The verb хотеть (“to want”) is a modal verb that always takes an infinitive to show what you want to do. So you say хочу + посмотреть, not a conjugated form.

Why do we say после ужина and not после ужин or something else?

The preposition после (“after”) requires the genitive case. The noun ужин (“dinner”) in genitive becomes ужина. That’s why it’s после ужина.

Can we omit the pronoun Я here?

Yes. Russian verb forms (like хочу) already mark person and number, so the subject pronoun Я can be dropped if the context is clear.

Is the word order fixed? For example, can we say После ужина я хочу посмотреть фильм?

Yes. Russian has relatively free word order. Placing после ужина at the front only shifts emphasis to the time (“It’s after dinner that I want to watch the movie”).

What’s the difference between фильм and кино?

фильм refers to an individual movie (e.g. a specific title), while кино is a general term for cinema or movies as a medium.

How do you pronounce посмотреть and ужин? Where is the stress?

In посмотреть the stress falls on the third syllable: [pəsmɐˈtrʲetʲ] (po-smuh-TRET’). In ужин the stress is on the first syllable: У́жин (OO-zheen).

If I want to say “I want to watch movies after dinner” (plural), how would the sentence change?

Just pluralize фильм to фильмы: Я хочу посмотреть фильмы после ужина.

Why don’t we need a future tense marker like буду смотреть here?

Because using the perfective infinitive посмотреть inherently refers to a future completed action. You don’t combine it with буду; that combination would be ungrammatical.