Breakdown of Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером.
Questions & Answers about Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером.
Собираюсь comes from the verb собираться, which literally means “to get ready, to prepare oneself, to gather oneself”.
In this construction:
- Я собираюсь читать… ≈ “I’m going to read…” / “I plan to read…”
Nuance:
- It expresses intention or plan in the near or reasonably definite future.
- It’s close to English “I’m going to…” (for plans), not to “I will” (neutral future, decision on the spot, etc.).
So Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером focuses on the fact that you have the plan / intention to read in the evening.
In Russian, after собираться (to be going / planning to do something), you use the infinitive of the main verb:
- собираться + infinitive
- Я собираюсь читать. – I’m going to read.
- Мы собираемся поехать. – We’re going to go (travel).
- Он собирается работать. – He’s going to work.
So:
- собираюсь = I am going / I plan
- читать = (to) read
Together, я собираюсь читать literally = “I am preparing/going to (to read)”, i.e. “I’m going to read.”
Grammatically, собираюсь is present tense, 1st person singular of собираться:
- я собираюсь – I am getting ready / I am going (to do something)
- ты собираешься
- он/она собирается
- мы собираемся
- вы собираетесь
- они собираются
However, when followed by an infinitive, present tense + собираться + infinitive expresses a future plan/intention:
- Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером. – I’m going to read a book in the evening.
- Она собирается пойти в кино. – She’s going to go to the cinema.
So:
- Form: present tense
- Meaning: “present intention about the future,” like English “I’m going to…”
Both talk about the future, but the nuance is different:
Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером.
- Focus: intention / plan.
- Similar to: “I’m going to read a book this evening” (I plan to, I intend to).
- Implies you have decided or arranged this.
Я буду читать книгу вечером.
- Focus: future action itself, more neutral, less about your “plan”.
- Similar to: “I will be reading a book in the evening” or simply “I will read a book in the evening”.
- Can sound a bit more matter‑of‑fact or descriptive (“this is what will be happening”).
In everyday speech, собираюсь explicitly highlights the plan/intention, while буду читать just states what will happen.
Книга is a feminine noun:
- книга – dictionary form (nominative singular, “a book”).
In Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером, книгу is the direct object of the verb читать (“to read”).
Direct objects of transitive verbs like читать are usually in the accusative case.
For a feminine noun ending in -а:
- Nominative: книга (subject)
- Accusative: книгу (direct object)
Examples:
- Книга лежит на столе. – The book is lying on the table. (subject → nominative)
- Я читаю книгу. – I am reading a book. (object → accusative)
So книгу is the correct accusative form.
Russian verbs have two aspects:
- Imperfective (e.g. читать) – process, repeated action, no focus on completion.
- Perfective (e.g. прочитать) – single, completed action, focus on the result.
In Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером, читать (imperfective) suggests:
- The activity/process of reading in the evening.
- You’re talking about what you’ll be doing, not guaranteeing you’ll finish the whole book.
If you say:
- Я собираюсь прочитать книгу вечером.
then the nuance shifts to:
- Intention to finish reading the (whole) book in the evening.
- Focus on the result/completion.
So:
- читать – “I’m going to be reading (spending time reading).”
- прочитать – “I’m going to (manage to) read it all / finish it.”
Yes, you can omit я:
- Собираюсь читать книгу вечером.
Russian often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending clearly shows the person:
- собираюсь clearly indicates “I” (1st person singular).
However:
- With я, the sentence is more neutral and complete.
Without я, it sounds a bit more informal / conversational, like a short answer to a question:
– Что ты будешь делать вечером?
– Собираюсь читать книгу.
So both are correct; including я is safer and more natural in full sentences.
The word order in Russian is flexible, and all these variants are grammatically correct:
Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером.
– Neutral, very common.Вечером я собираюсь читать книгу.
– Emphasizes “in the evening” (contrast with another time):
“In the evening I’m going to read a book (not in the morning).”Я вечером собираюсь читать книгу.
– Also possible; slightly more emphasis on вечером or sounds like you’re specifying the time:
“I, in the evening, am planning to read a book.”Я собираюсь вечером читать книгу.
– Emphasis that your plan concerns the evening.
In speech, Вечером я… and Я собираюсь… вечером are probably the most natural alternatives. The basic meaning stays the same; word order mainly affects emphasis and rhythm.
Yes, собираться is a reflexive verb.
- The infinitive is собираться.
- The -ся / -сь ending is the reflexive particle.
- In собираюсь, you see it as -юсь at the end (personal ending + reflexive).
Rough breakdown:
- собира- – stem (“gather, collect”)
- -ю – 1st person singular present ending
- -сь – reflexive particle (assimilated into -юсь in spelling/pronunciation)
Reflexive verbs often mean:
- Doing something to/for oneself, or
- A kind of internal / passive / mutual action.
Собирать = to collect, gather (something)
Собираться = to gather oneself / to get ready / to intend to do something
So я собираюсь = “I am getting ready / I am intending.”
Вечером is the instrumental case of вечер (evening).
For some times of day, Russian often uses the instrumental without a preposition to mean “in/at [that time]” in a general sense:
- утром – in the morning
- днём – in the daytime / in the afternoon
- вечером – in the evening
- ночью – at night
So вечером here basically means “in the evening”.
You can use в + accusative when you mean a specific evening:
- В этот вечер я читаю книгу. – That particular evening, I am reading a book.
But for general “in the evening (as a time of day)”, вечером (instrumental, no preposition) is the standard expression.
No, на вечер does not mean the same thing as вечером.
- вечером – “in the evening” (time when you will be reading).
- на вечер – usually means “for the evening” in the sense of something planned or assigned for that evening.
Examples:
- У меня планы на вечер. – I have plans for the evening.
- Задали много домашнего задания на вечер. – They gave a lot of homework for the evening.
If you say читать книгу на вечер, it would sound more like “a book for the evening” (as in an assignment or something chosen as evening reading), not the simple time adverb “in the evening.”
For “I am going to read a book in the evening,” вечером is the right choice.
Stressed syllables in CAPS and a rough transcription:
- Я собирАюсь читАть knИгу вЕчером.
More carefully (with Latin transliteration and stress):
- Я собира́юсь чита́ть кни́гу вéчером.
- ya sabiRÁ-yus’ chiTÁT’ KNÍ-gu VÉ-che-ram
Stress:
- собира́юсь – on ра́
- чита́ть – on та́
- кни́гу – on кни́
- ве́чером – on ве́
Pronunciation tips:
- я = “ya”
- -юсь at the end of собираюсь is like “yus’” (soft “s”).
- г in книгу is a hard “g” like in “go.”
- The final -ом in вечером is pronounced “um”, but nasalization is weaker than in English.
The sentence is neutral and completely standard. You can use it in:
- Daily conversation
- Speaking to colleagues or teachers
- Most written contexts where a conversational tone is fine
More formal / less colloquial alternatives to express a plan:
- Я планирую читать книгу вечером. – I plan to read a book in the evening.
- Я намерен(а) читать книгу вечером. – I intend to read a book in the evening. (quite formal)
But Я собираюсь читать книгу вечером is the most natural everyday choice for “I’m going to read a book in the evening.”