Мы собираемся запекать рыбу с картофелем на большом противне.

We are going to bake fish with potatoes on a large baking tray.

Breakdown of Мы собираемся запекать рыбу с картофелем на большом противне.

• с: with
• на: on
• мы: we
• рыба: the fish

Questions & Answers about Мы собираемся запекать рыбу с картофелем на большом противне.

What does собираемся mean in this sentence?

Собираемся is the 1st person plural present-tense form of собираться.

In this pattern, собираться + infinitive means to be going to do something, to be planning to do something, or to intend to do something.

So:

Мы собираемся запекать...
= We are going to bake... / We plan to bake...

The verb собираться by itself can also literally mean to get ready, to gather, or to assemble, but here it clearly has the meaning of intention or plan.

Why is the sentence using запекать and not запечь?

Запекать is the imperfective verb, while запечь is the perfective partner.

A common learner question is why Russian uses the imperfective here when English just says to bake.

After собираться both aspects are possible, but they give slightly different shades of meaning:

• собираться запекать = focus on the planned activity or process
• собираться запечь = focus more on completing one whole result

In everyday speech, собираться + imperfective is very common when talking about a planned action in general.

So Мы собираемся запекать рыбу... sounds very natural as We are going to bake fish...