Questions & Answers about Я хочу разогреть суп в кастрюле.
Why is the verb разогреть used here, and not греть or подогреть?
Russian has several verbs related to heating:
- греть / нагревать – to heat (general idea, also technical “to heat something up”).
- разогревать / разогреть – to heat up something that is already cooked or prepared (reheat food, warm it thoroughly).
- подогревать / подогреть – to warm something up a bit, to make it warm/warmer.
For soup or other ready-made food, разогреть is the most standard everyday choice:
разогреть суп, разогреть пиццу, разогреть обед.
You can also say подогреть суп; it often sounds a bit milder (just bring it up to a good eating temperature). греть суп by itself is unusual in everyday cooking speech; it sounds more like describing the general process rather than the goal of having hot, ready-to-eat soup.
Why is the verb разогреть in the infinitive form?
In Russian, хотеть (“to want”) is followed by an infinitive:
- Я хочу разогреть суп. – I want to heat up the soup.
- Он хочет поесть. – He wants to eat.
- Мы хотим поехать в Москву. – We want to go to Moscow.
The infinitive (разогреть) expresses the action that is desired. The conjugated verb is хочу, and разогреть stays in its base (dictionary) form.
Why is разогреть perfective here (разогреть, not )?