Learn Hardcore Russian: Я пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном. - I am drinking hot tea with honey and lemon.

Я не пью горячего чая. – I don’t drink hot tea.
(Genitive often used after negation.)
Я хочу горячего чая. – I want (some) hot tea.
(Genitive often used to mean “some of”.)

Why do мёд and лимон change to мёдом and лимоном?

Because of the preposition с meaning “with”.

In Russian, when с means with (together with), it normally takes the instrumental case.
The instrumental ending for most masculine nouns ending in a consonant is -ом.

So:

мёд → мёдом (instrumental, with honey)
лимон → лимоном (instrumental, with lemon)

That’s why we say:

с мёдом и лимоном – with honey and lemon

Why is the preposition с used here, and not another word for “with”?

Russian has more than one way to express “with,” but:

с
- instrumental is the standard way to say with (accompanied by):
  - чай с молоком – tea with milk
  - кофе с сахаром – coffee with sugar
  - чай с мёдом и лимоном – tea with honey and lemon

Other options like вместе с (together with) are used for people or joint action:

Я пью чай вместе с другом. – I drink tea together with my friend.

For ingredients/additions in food and drink, с + instrumental is the normal choice.

Why is the verb form пью and not пить?

Пить is the infinitive: to drink.
In the sentence, you need a finite verb that matches the subject я (I).

The present-tense conjugation (imperfective aspect) of пить is:

я пью – I drink / I am drinking
ты пьёшь
он/она/оно пьёт
мы пьём
вы пьёте
они пьют

So with я, the correct form is пью.

Does пью mean “I drink” or “I am drinking”? How do you show that difference in Russian?

Пью by itself can mean both:

I drink hot tea with honey and lemon. (habit / general fact)
I am drinking hot tea with honey and lemon. (right now)

Russian does not have a special continuous tense like English.
The same present tense form covers both:

Я пью горячий чай… – depends on context whether it’s habitual or happening now.

If you really want to stress right now, you can add a time expression:

Сейчас я пью горячий чай… – Right now I am drinking hot tea…

What is the infinitive of пью, and is there a perfective partner?

The infinitive of пью is пить (to drink), which is imperfective.

The common perfective partner is выпить (to drink up / to have a drink).

Я пью чай. – I drink tea / I am drinking tea.
Я выпью чай. – I will drink (up) the tea / I’ll have some tea.
(Perfective present form usually has a future meaning.)

So:

пить / пью – process, habit, ongoing action.
выпить / выпью – completed single action (usually future).

Can the word order be different? For example, can I say Я пью чай горячий с мёдом и лимоном?

Russian word order is flexible, but not every order sounds natural.

Most natural patterns here are:

Я пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном. (neutral)
Я пью чай с мёдом и лимоном, горячий. (possible, slightly emphasizing hot)

Я пью чай горячий с мёдом и лимоном sounds unusual and somewhat poetic or stylistically marked; in everyday speech it’s not typical.

Safe alternatives:

Move the adverbials:
- С мёдом и лимоном я пью горячий чай.
- Горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном я пью каждый день.

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

Russian does not have articles like a/an or the.

горячий чай can mean:
- hot tea,
- a hot tea,
- the hot tea, depending on context.

You usually understand whether it’s specific or general from the situation or from extra words:

Я пью горячий чай – I drink hot tea / I’m drinking hot tea.
Я пью этот горячий чай – I am drinking this hot tea.
(Using этот makes it specific, like “this/the”.)

Why do мёдом and лимоном both end in -ом? Are they the same gender?

Yes, both are masculine nouns ending in a consonant:

мёд – masculine
лимон – masculine

For most masculine singular nouns in the instrumental case, the ending is -ом:

стол → столом (with the table)
сок → соком (with juice)
чай → чаем (with tea)
мёд → мёдом (with honey)
лимон → лимоном (with lemon)

So с мёдом и лимоном follows the regular pattern: с + instrumental.

How do you pronounce this sentence, especially пью, горячий, мёдом, and лимоном?

Approximate pronunciation with stress marked:

Я пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном.
[ya pʲu go-RYA-chiy chay s MYO-dom i li-MO-nom]

Details:

я – [ya]
пью – [pʲu], like “pyu”; the п is soft.
горячий – [ga-RYA-chiy]; stress on ря (the second syllable).
чай – [chay]; like “chai”.
с – [s]; just an “s” sound.
мёдом – [MYO-dom]; stress on мё, ё always pronounced “yo”.
и – [i]; like “ee”.
лимоном – [li-MO-nom]; stress on the second о, sounds like “lee-MO-nom”.

Why is лимоном not лимономИ or something similar to English plural forms?

In this sentence, лимоном is:

singular (one lemon, as an ingredient or flavor)
in the instrumental case (because of с – with)

The ending -ом here marks case, not plural:

Nominative singular: лимон
Instrumental singular: лимоном

The plural of лимон is:

Nominative plural: лимоны
Instrumental plural: лимонами

So:

с лимоном – with (some) lemon
с лимонами – with lemons

How would I make this sentence negative in Russian?

You add не before the verb:

Я не пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном.
– I don’t drink hot tea with honey and lemon / I am not drinking hot tea with honey and lemon.

Note:

не normally comes directly before the verb.
The rest of the sentence stays the same.

What is the difference between горячий чай and тёплый чай?

They describe different temperatures:

горячий чай – hot tea
Tea that is quite hot; you feel the heat strongly, maybe you need to blow on it.
тёплый чай – warm tea
Noticeably warm, but not hot; comfortable to drink without burning yourself.

So:

Я пью горячий чай… – emphasizes that the tea is hot.
Я пью тёплый чай… – emphasizes that it is just warm, not very hot.

Could I omit я and just say Пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном?

Yes, you can omit я here:

Пью горячий чай с мёдом и лимоном.

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending clearly shows the person.
The form пью can only be “I”, so the meaning remains I drink / I am drinking.

Including я:

Я пью горячий чай… – neutral, a bit more explicit.

Omitting я might sound a bit shorter, sometimes more informal or like a quick note, but it’s grammatically fine.