Learn Hardcore Russian: Я хочу полить растение вечером. - I want to water the plant in the evening.

полить – perfective: one whole, complete watering, focusing on the result
- Я хочу полить растение вечером.
  = I want to (once) water it and have it done this evening.
поливать – imperfective: process, repeated or habitual action
- Я люблю поливать растения.
  = I like watering plants (in general, as an activity).
- Я буду поливать растение каждый день.
  = I will be watering the plant every day (repeated action).

With хочу and a specific situation (“this evening”), the perfective полить is the natural choice because you’re thinking of one completed action.

Why is растение in this form? Why not растению?

The verb полить takes a direct object in the accusative case (What? Whom? = что? кого?):

полить что? – растение

растение is a neuter noun:

Nominative (subject): растение – a/the plant
Accusative (direct object): растение (same as nominative for inanimate neuter nouns)

растению is dative (to/for the plant), which would be wrong here because you’re not doing something for the plant in grammar terms, you’re doing something to it:

✅ полить растение – to water the plant
❌ полить растению – incorrect form after полить

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before растение?

Russian has no articles (no separate words like a/an/the). Whether you mean a plant or the plant is understood from context:

Я хочу полить растение вечером.
Can mean:
- I want to water the plant in the evening. (a known plant)
- I want to water a plant in the evening. (any plant)

If you need to be specific, Russian uses context or other words:

Я хочу полить это растение вечером. – I want to water this plant in the evening.
Я хочу полить свои растения вечером. – I want to water my plants in the evening.

Why is it вечером and not something like в вечер?

Вечером is the standard way to say “in the evening / this evening”. It’s actually the instrumental case of вечер used as an adverbial time expression:

утро → утром – in the morning
день → днём – in the daytime
вечер → вечером – in the evening
ночь → ночью – at night

You do not say в вечер in this meaning.

So:

✅ Я хочу полить растение вечером. – natural Russian
❌ Я хочу полить растение в вечер. – incorrect here

Can I move вечером to another position in the sentence?

Yes. Russian word order is flexible for adverbs like вечером. All of these are grammatically correct and mean almost the same:

Я хочу полить растение вечером.
Я хочу вечером полить растение.
Вечером я хочу полить растение.

Differences are mostly in emphasis:

Starting with Вечером emphasizes when: In the evening, I want to water the plant (not now, not in the morning).
Putting вечером right after хочу emphasizes the time of your desire a bit: you want (this evening) to water the plant.

In everyday speech, all are fine and very close in meaning.

Can I drop я and just say Хочу полить растение вечером?

Yes, you can. In Russian, subject pronouns (like я) are often omitted because the verb ending shows the person:

Я хочу – I want
(Я) хочу полить растение вечером.
Omitting я is natural, especially in spoken language.

However, you usually keep я:

for clarity in complex contexts,
for emphasis (contrasting people):
- Я хочу полить растение, а он не хочет. – I want to water the plant, but he doesn’t.

How do you pronounce the words, and where is the stress?

Stress (capitalized syllable) and rough pronunciation:

Я хочу полить растение вечером.
- я хоЧУ поЛИТЬ расТЕ́-ни-е ВЕ́-че-ром

More precisely:

я – ya
хочу – ha-CHU (stress on -чу)
полить – pa-LEET’ (soft t’, stress on -лить)
растение – ra-STÉ-nee-ye (stress on -сте-)
вечером – VÉ-che-ram (stress on ве-)

Key points:

хочу: stress shifts to the last syllable – хоЧУ
полить: stress on -лить
растение: don’t say ras-TE-ni-ye; stress is расТЕ́ние
вечером: ВЕ́чер, so ВЕ́чером

How would полить be conjugated if I used it without хочу?

Полить is perfective; its present forms look like future forms:

я полью – I will water
ты польёшь – you will water
он/она/оно польёт – he/she/it will water
мы польём – we will water
вы польёте – you (pl/formal) will water
они польют – they will water

Example:

Я полью растение вечером. – I’ll (once, successfully) water the plant in the evening.

With хочу, you keep полить in the infinitive:

Я хочу полить растение вечером. – I want to water the plant in the evening.

Could I say Я хочу поливать растение вечером instead?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

Я хочу полить растение вечером.
= I want to water the plant this evening (one complete action).
Я хочу поливать растение вечером.
= I want to water the plant in the evenings / in the evening as a habit (regularly, as a routine time).

So:

полить – one specific act, focus on completion.
поливать – repeated or ongoing action, focus on the process or habit.

What’s the difference between растение and цветок here?

Both can appear in similar sentences, but they are not the same:

растение – a plant (general term; any plant, including trees, bushes, etc.)
цветок – a flower (usually one flowering plant or the blossom)

In many everyday contexts, people might say:

Я хочу полить цветок вечером. – I want to water the flower this evening.

If you’re talking about a houseplant, both растение and цветок can be used, but цветок sounds a bit more colloquial and specific to a flower/flowering pot-plant.

If I want to stress that I’m planning, not just wanting, can I use another verb instead of хочу?

Yes, different verbs change the nuance:

Я хочу полить растение вечером. – I want to water the plant in the evening.
Я собираюсь полить растение вечером. – I am going to / intend to water the plant in the evening (a plan).
Я планирую полить растение вечером. – I plan to water the plant in the evening (more formal).

Grammatically, the structure is the same: conjugated verb + полить (infinitive), but the meaning shifts from desire (хочу) to intention or plan (собираюсь, планирую).