Вечером я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.

Breakdown of Вечером я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.

я
I
новый
new
слушать
to listen
вечером
in the evening
собираться
to be going to
здоровье
the health
про
about
подкаст
the podcast
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Questions & Answers about Вечером я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.

Why is it вечером and not вечер?

Вечером is вечер in the instrumental case, used adverbially to mean in the evening / this evening / tonight.

Russian very often uses the instrumental of time words to say “at that time of day”:

  • утром – in the morning
  • днём – in the afternoon / during the day
  • вечером – in the evening
  • ночью – at night

So Вечером я… = In the evening I… / This evening I…
Plain вечер is just the noun evening in its basic (nominative) form.

Could the sentence start with Я вечером собираюсь… instead? Does the word order matter?

Yes, you can say:

  • Вечером я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.
  • Я вечером собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.

Both are correct and natural.

Word order in Russian is flexible. The neutral patterns put time expressions either:

  1. At the beginning: Вечером я… (slight emphasis on when)
  2. Or after the subject: Я вечером…

Placing вечером first often sounds like you’re setting the scene: As for this evening, I’m going to…

What exactly does я собираюсь слушать mean compared to simply я буду слушать?

Both talk about the future, but with different nuances:

  • Я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст…
    = I am going to listen / I plan to listen / I intend to listen.
    This stresses intention or plan.

  • Я буду слушать новый подкаст…
    = I will be listening to / I will listen to the new podcast.
    This is a more neutral future, focusing on the action happening in the future, not specifically on your plan.

So:

  • If you want to emphasize intention/arrangement, use собираться + infinitive.
  • If you just state a future action without that nuance, use буду слушать.
Why is слушать in the infinitive form and not conjugated (like слушаю)?

Because собираться (in the sense “to be going to do something”) is a modal-like verb that requires an infinitive:

  • Я собираюсь слушать… – I’m going to listen…
  • Я собираюсь читать… – I’m going to read…
  • Я собираюсь смотреть… – I’m going to watch…

In English you have a similar pattern: “I’m going to listen / to read / to watch” – after “going to”, you also use the bare infinitive form listen / read / watch, not listening / reading / watching.

What’s the role of the -сь / -ся ending in собираться?

The ending -ся / -сь marks a reflexive verb.

Base verb:

  • собирать – to gather, to collect (something)
    • Он собирает марки. – He collects stamps.

Reflexive form:

  • собираться – to gather (as a group); to get ready; to be going to (do something)
    • Мы собираемся уехать. – We are going to leave.
    • Гости собираются. – The guests are gathering.

So in this sentence я собираюсь means I am going to / I intend to, and that sense comes from the reflexive verb собираться.

Why is слушать (imperfective) used here instead of послушать (perfective)?

Слушать is imperfective; послушать is perfective.

  • Я собираюсь слушать новый подкаст…
    Focus: the process/duration of listening.
    = I’m going to (spend some time) listening to the new podcast.

  • Я собираюсь послушать новый подкаст…
    Focus: a single complete action – to give it a listen, try it out, listen once.
    = I’m going to (have a) listen to the new podcast.

Both are possible; the original with слушать slightly emphasizes the activity of listening, not just the fact of completing it once.

What case is новый подкаст in, and why does it look like the basic form?

Новый подкаст here is in the accusative case as the direct object of слушать:

  • (Я) слушаю что?новый подкаст.

For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular has the same form as the nominative singular:

  • nominative: новый подкаст – a new podcast (subject)
  • accusative: новый подкаст – (I listen to) a new podcast (object)

So although it looks like the base form, its function in the sentence is accusative.

Why is it про здоровье and not о здоровье? Are про and о different?

Both can mean about:

  • подкаст про здоровье
  • подкаст о здоровье

They’re both grammatically correct, but there’s a nuance:

  • про – more informal / colloquial, very common in everyday speech, often for topics or content (films, books, podcasts, stories, etc.):

    • фильм про войну – a movie about war
    • книга про космос – a book about space
  • о

    • prepositional case – slightly more neutral or formal, also broader in use:

    • он говорит о здоровье – he talks about health
    • лекция о медицине – a lecture on medicine

So про здоровье is perfectly natural in a casual sentence about a podcast.

What case is здоровье after про?

After про, Russian normally uses the accusative case:

  • про что? – about what?
    • про фильм, про войну, про здоровье

For the noun здоровье (neuter, ending in -ье), the accusative singular is the same form as the nominative: здоровье.

So the form doesn’t change, but its grammatical role here is accusative governed by про.

Could you drop я and just say Вечером собираюсь слушать новый подкаст…?

Yes, that’s possible and natural in context:

  • Вечером собираюсь слушать новый подкаст про здоровье.

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the verb ending clearly shows the person.
Собираюсь has a clear -юсь ending, which indicates 1st person singular (I).

Dropping я can sound slightly more casual or “diary-like”, but it’s not wrong at all. Including я is the most neutral: Вечером я собираюсь…

How would the meaning change if we said Вечером я буду слушать новый подкаст про здоровье instead?
  • Вечером я собираюсь слушать…
    = This evening I plan / intend to listen… (focus on intention/plan.)

  • Вечером я буду слушать…
    = This evening I will be listening… (focus on the future action itself, more matter‑of‑fact.)

In many situations both are possible; собираться just adds the idea that it’s already on your mind as a plan, not just a prediction of what will happen.

Does новый here mean “brand‑new” or “latest”? How should I feel it?

Новый in Russian covers both ideas and the context decides:

  • новый подкаст can mean:
    • a new (to me) podcast that I haven’t listened to before
    • the latest episode or a newly released podcast

If you want to stress “latest release” more clearly, you might add words like только что вышедший (just released), but in everyday speech новый подкаст is usually enough and often understood as the latest one in context.