Я хочу ещё кофе.

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Breakdown of Я хочу ещё кофе.

• хотеть: to want
• кофе: the coffee
• ещё: more

Questions & Answers about Я хочу ещё кофе.

What part of speech is ещё and what does it mean in this sentence?

Ещё is an adverb. In Я хочу ещё кофе it means “more” (i.e. an additional amount), so the full sense is “I want more coffee.”

Why is кофе not inflected for case or number here?

Кофе is an indeclinable (invariable) noun in Russian, borrowed from another language. It stays кофе in nominative, accusative, genitive, etc. It also typically has no plural when referring to the substance (“coffee” in general).

Russian has no word for “some” in Я хочу ещё кофе. How do you express “some coffee”?

Russian does not use an article or a direct equivalent of English “some” with mass nouns. To explicitly say “some coffee” you could add немного: Я хочу немного кофе. But simply кофе often implies “some coffee.”

Why is the word order ещё кофе rather than кофе ещё?

Adverbs normally precede the word they modify. Ещё modifies кофе, so it comes before it. If you say кофе ещё? as a question, it’s more like “More coffee?” with a rising intonation and elliptical style.

What’s the difference between Я хочу ещё кофе and Я ещё хочу кофе?

• Я хочу ещё кофе = “I want more coffee” (asking for an additional serving).
• Я ещё хочу кофе = “I still want coffee” (meaning you haven’t changed your mind; you want coffee rather than something else).

Why do we say хочу instead of something like “would like”?

In Russian you simply use the verb хотеть (“to want”): я хочу = “I want.” To soften it to “I would like,” you use the conditional form я хотел(а) бы: Я хотел(а) бы ещё кофе (“I would like some more coffee”).

How is ещё pronounced, and why is it sometimes spelled with е instead of ё?

Pronunciation: [ɪˈʂɵ] with stress on the second syllable (sounds like “eesh-yo”). Russian often writes ё as е in print, so you’ll see ещё even though you pronounce it as [ʲɪˈʂɵ] with the ё sound.