Поставь кавычку после этого слова, пожалуйста.

Поставь is the imperative form of поставить. It means a command or request addressed to one person in the informal singular, so it is like telling you to do something.

Russian usually leaves out the subject pronoun, so ты is understood but not said. A fuller version would be Ты поставь кавычку...

If you were speaking politely or to more than one person, you would say поставьте instead.

This is about verbal aspect.

• поставить is perfective
• ставить is imperfective

In a request like this, Russian usually prefers the perfective imperative when the speaker wants one complete result: add the quotation mark and finish the action.

So поставь кавычку means something like put in the quotation mark as a completed action.

Ставь is possible in other contexts, but it would usually sound more like a general instruction, repeated action, or a different nuance rather than one specific completed edit.

In Russian, ставить / поставить is a very normal verb for adding marks or signs in writing.

For example, Russian also says:

• поставить точку — put a period
• поставить запятую — put a comma
• поставить ударение — mark the stress
• поставить подпись — sign

So поставить кавычку is just the standard Russian way to say insert / put a quotation mark.

The dictionary form is кавычка. Here it is the direct object of the verb поставь, so it has to be in the accusative case.

For most inanimate feminine nouns ending in -а, the accusative singular changes -а to -у:

• кавычка → кавычку

So Поставь кавычку literally means Put a quotation mark.

Yes. In this sentence, кавычку is singular, so it means one quotation mark.

That can feel slightly unusual to an English speaker, because English often talks about quotation marks as a pair. But Russian can very naturally refer to one mark in the singular if that is what is meant.

If the speaker meant both marks together, they would often use the plural кавычки.

Because после requires the genitive case.

The basic phrase is:

• это слово — this word

After после, it changes to the genitive:

• этого слова

So:

• после этого слова = after this word

Both words change because the demonstrative этот / это has to agree with the noun.

Because это is not the form used here.

The noun слово is neuter singular, and after после it must be in the genitive case. The demonstrative has to match that.

So the forms are:

• nominative: это слово
• genitive: этого слова

That is why the sentence has после этого слова.

Пожалуйста makes the command polite. It corresponds to please.

Without it, Поставь кавычку после этого слова is still grammatical, but it sounds more direct. Adding пожалуйста softens the request.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, and пожалуйста can appear in different positions.

For example:

• Поставь, пожалуйста, кавычку после этого слова.
• Пожалуйста, поставь кавычку после этого слова.
• Поставь кавычку после этого слова, пожалуйста.

All of these are natural. The version in your sentence is a very common way to make a simple request sound polite.

No, not completely. Russian word order is fairly flexible because the case endings show the grammatical relationships.

The given order is neutral and natural:

• Поставь кавычку после этого слова, пожалуйста.

But you could also say:

• После этого слова поставь кавычку, пожалуйста.

That version puts more emphasis on after this word. The basic meaning stays the same, but the focus shifts a little.