Я поставил полный стакан воды на стол.

I put a full glass of water on the table.

Breakdown of Я поставил полный стакан воды на стол.

• я: I
• вода: the water
• стол: the table
• на: on
• стакан: the glass
• поставить: to put
• полный: full

Questions & Answers about Я поставил полный стакан воды на стол.

Why is поставил used here, and what does it imply?

Поставил is the perfective past of ставить/поставить (“to put/place in an upright position”). It implies:

• a completed action (“I put/placed” as a finished event),
• typically placing something so it ends up standing (a glass, bottle, cup, etc.). For “to put” in general Russian often chooses a verb based on the object’s typical final position: поставить (stand), положить (lay), повесить (hang).

Why does стакан become стакан воды—what case is воды and why?

Воды is genitive singular of вода. After a container word like стакан (“a glass”), Russian commonly uses:

• N + Genitive to mean “a glass of (some) water”: стакан воды, бутылка молока, чашка чая. This is a very standard pattern for contents/measure.

What does полный стакан воды mean grammatically—does полный describe the glass or the water?

Grammatically, полный (masculine nominative singular) agrees with стакан, so it describes the glass as being full. In meaning, of course, it’s “a glass full of water.”
Word group: полный (какой?) стакан (чего?) воды.

Why is на стол used instead of на столе?

Because на стол is accusative after на to show movement/destination (“onto the table”).

• на стол (Acc.) = where it was put to (motion)
• на столе (Prep.) = where it is located (no motion)
  So the sentence focuses on the placing action, not just location.

Why is стол in the form стол, not стола or something else?

Because with на + Accusative the noun стол takes the accusative form. For many inanimate masculine nouns, accusative = nominative, so it looks unchanged: стол → на стол.
(If it were animate masculine, accusative would match genitive, but стол is inanimate.)

Could I also say Я поставил стакан с водой на стол? Is it the same?

It’s close, but not identical:

• стакан воды = “a glass of water” (focus on the quantity/contents as a measure)
• стакан с водой = “a glass with water (in it)” (focus on the glass as an object that happens to contain water)
  Both can be correct; стакан воды is more idiomatic for ordering/describing a serving.

Why is there no word for “a/the” in Russian here?

Russian has no articles, so стакан can correspond to “a glass” or “the glass” depending on context. The sentence is grammatically complete without anything extra. If you need to specify, Russian uses other tools (word order, demonstratives like этот, context).

What does the word order tell me? Could it be rearranged?

Basic neutral order is often Subject–Verb–Object–Place:
Я поставил [полный стакан воды] [на стол].
You can reorder for emphasis:

• На стол я поставил полный стакан воды. (emphasizes onto the table)
• Полный стакан воды я поставил на стол. (emphasizes the full glass of water)
  Case endings keep the roles clear, so word order is flexible.

Why is Я included—can it be omitted?

Yes. Russian often drops the subject pronoun because the verb ending already shows the person:

• Поставил полный стакан воды на стол. = “(I) put a full glass of water on the table.”
  Я is kept for emphasis/contrast (“I put it…”).

Does поставил tell us anything about gender?

Yes. Past tense in Russian agrees in gender/number with the subject:

• я поставил = speaker is male (or the grammatical subject is masculine)
• я поставила = speaker is female
  Plural would be поставили.

How would I say this in the present or future?

• Present (imperfective): Я ставлю полный стакан воды на стол. (“I’m putting / I put [habitually]…”)
• Future (perfective): Я поставлю полный стакан воды на стол. (“I will put…”) Perfective (поставить) has no true present meaning; its “present forms” are used as future.

Could положил be used instead of поставил?

Usually no, because положить means “to put down/lay” with the idea the object ends up lying. A glass normally ends up standing, so поставил is the natural choice.
You might use положил only if the object is placed horizontally (e.g., a spoon, a book) or you intentionally laid the glass down (unusual).

Is полный стакан воды definite in the sense of “a full glass” vs “the full glass”?

By itself, it’s ambiguous, and context decides. If you want to make it clearly “that/this specific one,” you can add:

• этот полный стакан воды = “this full glass of water”
• тот полный стакан воды = “that full glass of water”