Learn Hardcore Russian: Принеси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара.

Принеси – informal, singular “bring (you, one person)”.
Use it:
- with friends, family, children
- when talking to one person you know well
Принесите – formal or plural “bring (you, one or more people)”.
Use it:
- with strangers, waiters, staff, older people, or anyone you want to address politely
- with two or more people, even if they’re your friends

So Принеси мне… is something you’d say to a friend or family member. In a café, you’d normally say Принесите мне….

Why is мне used here, and what case is it?

Мне is the dative form of я (I).

In Russian, the person who receives something is usually in the dative case:

Принеси мне … – Bring (something) to me.
Дай мне книгу. – Give *me the book.*
Купи мне кофе. – Buy me a coffee.

So мне answers the question кому? (to whom?), which is dative.

What does какой‑нибудь mean exactly? Is it like “some”, “any”, or “whatever”?

Какой‑нибудь is an indefinite pronoun and often translates as “some (kind of)”, “any”, or “whatever”, depending on context.

In this sentence, какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток suggests:

The speaker doesn’t care much which specific drink it is.
Any suitable warm drink is fine.

Nuances:

какой‑нибудь – can sound vague, random, sometimes a bit careless:
- Купи какой‑нибудь сок. – Buy some (any) juice, whatever.
какой‑то – similar, but a bit more neutral and often used when the speaker doesn’t know which one:
- Он купил какой‑то напиток. – He bought some kind of drink (I don’t know which).

Here, какой‑нибудь is pretty natural and just means “some warm drink, I’m not picky about which one.”

Why is there a hyphen in какой‑нибудь? Could it be written as two words?

No, какой‑нибудь must be written with a hyphen as one unit.

Reason:

‑нибудь is a suffix used to form indefinite pronouns:
- кто‑нибудь – somebody / anybody
- что‑нибудь – something / anything
- какой‑нибудь – some (kind of), any
- когда‑нибудь – sometime / ever

So какой‑нибудь is a single word in Russian spelling, not какой нибудь.

Why is тёплый used here and not горячий? What’s the difference?

Both refer to temperature, but not the same level:

тёплый – warm, pleasantly warm, not hot.
- тёплая вода – warm water (you can touch it easily).
горячий – hot, usually too hot to touch or drink immediately.
- горячий чай – hot tea (you may need to let it cool a bit).

In тёплый напиток, the speaker is asking specifically for a warm drink, not necessarily very hot. If they wanted something genuinely hot, they’d more naturally say:

горячий напиток без сахара – a hot drink without sugar.

Why is напиток in this form? Which case is it, and how does it decline?

Напиток (drink, beverage) here is in the accusative singular as the direct object of the verb принеси:

Принеси (что?) какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток.

For inanimate masculine nouns ending in a consonant, the accusative singular equals the nominative singular:

Nominative: напиток
Accusative: напиток

A few main forms:

Nominative: напиток – the drink (subject)
Genitive: напитка – of the drink / some drink
Dative: напитку – to the drink
Accusative: напиток – (I see / bring) the drink
Instrumental: напитком – with the drink
Prepositional: о напитке – about the drink

Why is it без сахара and not без сахар? What case does без require?

The preposition без (without) always takes the genitive case.

без (чего?) сахара – without sugar
без (чего?) воды – without water
без (чего?) молока – without milk

So:

Nominative: сахар – sugar
Genitive: сахара – of sugar / some sugar / without sugar

That’s why the phrase must be без сахара, not без сахар.

Why is сахара singular, not plural like “sugars”? How would Russian say “without sugars”?

In Russian, uncountable substances like sugar, water, milk, etc. are normally used in the singular when you mean the substance in general.

без сахара – without sugar (in general)
без воды – without water

If you literally want “without sugars” in the sense of different types of sugar (in a nutritional context), you might see:

без сахаров – without sugars (plural, talking about chemical sugars)

But in everyday speech about a drink, you almost always say без сахара.

Why is it тёплый напиток and not тёплое напиток? How does agreement work here?

In Russian, adjectives agree with nouns in:

gender
number
case

Напиток is masculine singular and in the accusative (which looks like nominative for inanimate masculine nouns). The corresponding form of тёплый is:

Masculine singular: тёплый
Feminine singular: тёплая
Neuter singular: тёплое
Plural: тёплые

So you must say:

тёплый напиток – warm drink (masculine)
тёплая вода – warm water (feminine)
тёплое молоко – warm milk (neuter)

What is the stress and pronunciation of тёплый, напиток, and сахара?

Stress and pronunciation:

тёплый – stress on тё́
Pronounced roughly “TYOP-lyy”.
- ё is always stressed and sounds like “yo” as in “yoga”.
напиток – stress on пи́: напи́ток
Pronounced roughly “na-PEE-tok”.
сахара – stress on са́: са́хара
Pronounced roughly “SA-ha-ra” (not like the Sahara desert; both a are short).

Also note: in everyday writing, many Russians type теплый instead of тёплый, but it is still pronounced with “yo” (тё‑).

Could I say приноси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара instead of принеси? What’s the difference?

No, приноси would change the meaning.

принеси – imperative of принести (perfective)
Means “bring (it) once, bring and be done.”
That’s what you want here: a single action.
приноси – imperative of приносить (imperfective)
Means something like “keep bringing,” “bring regularly,” “make it a habit to bring.”

So:

Принеси мне тёплый напиток. – Bring me a warm drink (now, one time).
Приноси мне тёплый напиток каждое утро. – Bring me a warm drink every morning.

For this sentence, принеси is the correct and natural choice.

Can I leave out какой‑нибудь and just say Принеси мне тёплый напиток без сахара? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can omit какой‑нибудь:

Принеси мне тёплый напиток без сахара.

That would sound slightly more definite, as if you’re asking for “a warm drink without sugar” and maybe you both know what kind of drink is likely (e.g. tea or coffee).

With какой‑нибудь:

Принеси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара.

Nuances:

suggests “any warm drink is fine”, you’re not picky
sounds a bit more casual and indifferent about the specific drink

Why do we say мне and not для меня here?

Для меня literally means “for me” in a more abstract, “intended for” sense, not “to me as the receiver of an action.”

Принеси мне напиток. – Bring me a drink (to me, I will receive it).
Этот напиток для меня. – This drink is for me (intended for me).

With verbs like давать (to give), приносить / принести (to bring), покупать / купить (to buy for someone), Russian prefers the dative:

Купи мне чай. – Buy me tea.
Принеси мне кофе. – Bring me coffee.

Для меня is used more for:

indicating purpose:
- Книга для меня. – The book is for me.
emphasizing who something is meant for, not the act of giving/bringing.

So мне is the natural choice in this sentence.

How could I make this request more polite in Russian?

To sound more polite or softer, you can:

Add пожалуйста (please):
- Принеси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара, пожалуйста.
  (still informal “ты”, but polite in tone)
Use Принесите (formal/plural) if you’re talking to a stranger, waiter, etc.:
- Принесите мне, пожалуйста, какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара.
Optionally drop какой‑нибудь if you want to sound a bit more neutral / standard in a café:
- Принесите мне, пожалуйста, тёплый напиток без сахара.

All of these are polite; choice depends mainly on whether you are using ты (принеси) or вы (принесите).

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Принеси мне без сахара какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток?

Russian word order is flexible, so several variants are possible and grammatically correct:

Принеси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара. (default, very natural)
Принеси мне какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара, пожалуйста.
Принеси мне без сахара какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток.

However:

Keeping какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток together feels more natural, because it’s one unit (“some warm drink”).
The phrase без сахара often comes after the noun phrase.

So your suggested order is understandable and not wrong, but the original …какой‑нибудь тёплый напиток без сахара is more typical and smoother.