Learn Hardcore Russian: Сегодня я глажу костюм утюгом. - Today I am ironing the suit with an iron.

Глажу is the 1st person singular present tense form of the imperfective verb гладить (“to iron”). Imperfective aspect describes an ongoing, habitual or repeated action. If you wanted to express a single completed action, you would use the perfective verb погладить (“to iron once”) and say я поглажу костюм – but that would be future tense, since perfective verbs have no present form in Russian.

What is the infinitive (dictionary) form of глажу, and what meaning does it carry?

The infinitive is гладить. It carries the general meaning “to iron” (clothes, linen, etc.) and is imperfective, so it can describe ironing in progress, habitual ironing, or repeated ironing.

Why is глажу spelled with ж rather than д?

The root of the verb is глад-, but when you form the present tense, a consonant alternation occurs: глад- + -и- + -у → глажу. Phonetically, the д combines with the following vowel to become the affricate ж, so you see ж in the written form.

What case is костюм in, and why does its form not change from the nominative?

Костюм is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of глажу. Inanimate masculine nouns in the singular have identical nominative and accusative forms, so костюм looks the same in both cases.

What case is утюгом, and why is there no preposition before it?

Утюгом is in the instrumental case, which in Russian often indicates the tool or means by which an action is performed. You do not need a preposition; the instrumental ending -ом alone shows that the iron is the instrument: “I iron the suit with an iron.”

Why is сегодня placed at the beginning of the sentence? Could you move it?

Russian has fairly free word order. Placing сегодня (“today”) at the start emphasizes the time. You could also say Я глажу костюм утюгом сегодня or Глажу сегодня костюм утюгом with only slight shifts in emphasis or style. The core meaning stays the same.

Can you drop я in this sentence and just say Сегодня глажу костюм утюгом?

Yes. Russian verbs in the present tense carry person and number endings, so the subject pronoun я is often omitted if context makes it clear. Сегодня глажу костюм утюгом is perfectly natural and still means “Today I’m ironing the suit.”

What’s the difference between гладить and погладить, and how would the sentence change with the perfective?

Гладить is imperfective (ongoing or habitual), погладить is perfective (a single completed action). With the perfective, present-tense forms don’t exist, so you express a future single action: Сегодня я поглажу костюм утюгом – “Today I will iron the suit (once).”

Does я глажу костюм imply it’s my suit, or could it be someone else’s?

It could be any known suit in context. To specify “my suit,” you’d say я глажу свой костюм or я глажу мой костюм. Bare костюм simply refers to “the suit” understood from prior context.

Could you swap костюм and утюгом in word order (e.g., Сегодня я глажу утюгом костюм)? Would the meaning change?

Grammatically it’s possible to say Сегодня я глажу утюгом костюм, but it feels less neutral. Russian word order is flexible, but the most common word order for clarity is subject–verb–object–instrument. Moving утюгом before костюм can add slight emphasis to the tool (“it’s with the iron that I’m ironing the suit”), though the basic meaning remains.