Возьми не этот стакан, а тот.

Take not this glass, but that one.

Breakdown of Возьми не этот стакан, а тот.

• не: not
• этот: this
• взять: to take
• стакан: the glass

Questions & Answers about Возьми не этот стакан, а тот.

Why does Russian use не ... а ... here?

This is a very common Russian contrast pattern:

не X, а Y = not X, but Y

So:

Возьми не этот стакан, а тот.
literally: Take not this glass, but that one.

Use а when you are correcting or contrasting one choice with another.

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Why is it возьми, not бери?

This is about aspect.

• взять → perfective
• брать → imperfective

The imperative возьми comes from взять and usually means take it / pick it up as a single completed action.

The imperative бери comes from брать and can sound more like:

• take it in a general sense,
• go ahead and take it,
• or something habitual/repeated depending on context.

In this sentence, the speaker is telling someone to choose one specific glass, so возьми is very natural.

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Why is it стакан, not стакана?

Because стакан is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: стакан
• accusative: стакан

If it were a masculine animate noun, the accusative would often match the genitive instead.

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