Learn Hardcore Russian: Положи свой нож в центр стола. - Put your knife in the center of the table.

It is used when speaking informally to one person (the ты form).
The implied subject is ты (you), but in Russian you normally drop the pronoun with imperatives, so you don’t say Ты положи, just Положи.

The polite / plural version would be Положите.

What is the difference between положи and клади?

Both can translate as put, but they differ in aspect and usage:

Положи comes from положить (perfective aspect).
- Focuses on the result of a single, complete action.
- Typical in one-time commands: Положи нож — Put the knife (down once, to a specific place).
Клади comes from класть (imperfective aspect).
- Focuses on the process or on repeated / ongoing actions.
- Used for instructions describing how something should be done regularly or continuously:
  - Клади ножи сюда каждый раз. – Put the knives here every time.

In this sentence, you want a single, concrete action, so Положи свой нож в центр стола is natural.

Why is свой used instead of твой for your knife?

Russian has a reflexive possessive pronoun свой that means one’s own.

In this sentence, the implied subject is ты (you), so свой нож = your own knife.

You could say твой нож, but:

Свой is strongly preferred in Russian when:
- The possessor is the subject (or the one doing the action).
- There is no need to contrast whose object it is.
Твой нож can sound a bit more contrastive or emphatic:
- Положи твой нож в центр стола, а его нож оставь. – Put your knife in the center of the table, and leave his knife.

So Положи свой нож… is the most natural default.

Can I omit свой and just say Положи нож в центр стола?

Yes, you can, and it will often be understood as Put the knife (i.e. the one you are holding / we’re talking about) in the center of the table.

Difference in nuance:

Положи свой нож…
– More explicitly: your own knife (e.g. everybody has their own knife).
Положи нож…
– Refers to the knife in the situation, probably the one in your hand or the one everyone knows about. Possession is left implicit.

In many everyday contexts, Положи нож… is absolutely fine and natural. Свой is just more explicit.

Why is нож in this form and not ножа?

Нож is masculine inanimate. In Russian:

Masculine inanimate nouns have the same form in the nominative and accusative.
- Nominative singular: нож (a knife)
- Accusative singular (direct object): also нож

So in Положи свой нож…, нож is in the accusative case (it is the direct object of положи), but its form happens to look the same as the nominative.

You would only see ножа in:

Genitive (e.g. нет ножа – there is no knife),
or Accusative animate (for people/animals), which нож isn’t.

Why is it в центр and not в центре?

The preposition в uses different cases depending on whether you mean motion to a place or location in a place:

Motion to / into (where to?): в
- accusative
- в центр стола – into / to the center of the table
Location in (where at?): в
- prepositional
- в центре стола – in the center of the table (no movement, just describing position)

In Положи свой нож в центр стола, you are telling someone to move the knife to that place, so в центр (accusative) is required.

Why is стола in the genitive case?

Стола is the genitive singular of стол (table).

Russian often uses the genitive to express an “of” relationship between two nouns. Here:

центр стола literally = the center of the table

This is a common pattern with words like:

центр стола – the center of the table
край стола – the edge of the table
угол комнаты – the corner of the room

So the structure is:

в центр стола = into the center of-the-table.

Why is it в центр стола and not на центр стола?

Both в and на can sometimes sound possible with центр, but they differ in feel:

в центр стола (literally into the center of the table)
- Sounds like into the central area of the table’s surface.
- Very natural here.
на центр стола (literally onto the center of the table)
- Grammatically possible, but less common; it can sound slightly more physical/point-like: onto the central spot of the tabletop.
- In many contexts, speakers simply prefer в центр стола.

If you just wanted “onto the table” without specifying the center, you would say на стол (onto the table), not в стол.

Could I simply say Положи свой нож на стол? How is that different?

Yes, Положи свой нож на стол is completely correct. It means:

Put your knife on the table (anywhere on the table).

Difference:

Положи свой нож в центр стола – very specific: in the center of the table.
Положи свой нож на стол – less specific: just on the table somewhere.

So the original sentence is more precise about where on the table.

Is the word order fixed, or can it change?

Russian word order is fairly flexible. You can move phrases around to change emphasis, while keeping the meaning essentially the same.

Some possible variants:

Положи нож в центр стола.
Положи в центр стола свой нож. – light emphasis on свой нож (your own knife).
В центр стола положи свой нож. – emphasis on в центр стола (where to put it).

However, the original Положи свой нож в центр стола is the neutral, most natural version. You usually don’t separate the verb and its direct object too much unless you have a reason for emphasis.

How would I say this politely or formally?

For polite or formal speech (or when addressing more than one person), use the вы-form imperative:

Положите свой нож в центр стола.

To sound especially polite, you can add пожалуйста (please):

Положите, пожалуйста, свой нож в центр стола.

How do you pronounce and stress Положи свой нож в центр стола?

Approximate stresses (marked with bold):

Положи – pa-la-ZHI (stress on жи)
свой – one syllable: like English svoy (with a consonant cluster sv)
нож – sounds like nozh (with a zh sound, as in measure)
в центр – v tsentr (the в and ц are close: [vtsentr])
стола́ – sta-LA (stress on the last syllable)

Smoothly together:
Положи свой нож в центр стола́.

In connected speech, consonants run together, so в центр is pronounced like one cluster: [v tsentr].