Die Dozentin schreibt die wichtigsten Wörter auf das Whiteboard.

Dozentin means a female lecturer or instructor, especially in a college or university context.

The ending -in is a very common way to make a noun feminine in German:

• der Dozent = male lecturer
• die Dozentin = female lecturer

The plural is die Dozentinnen for a group of female lecturers.

They are both definite articles, but they belong to different nouns and show different grammar.

• Die Dozentin: here die is feminine singular nominative, because Dozentin is the subject.
• die wichtigsten Wörter: here die is plural accusative, because Wörter is the direct object.

So even though both articles look the same, they are doing different jobs.

Because the full verb is aufschreiben, which is a separable verb.

In a normal main clause, German often splits separable verbs like this:

• Die Dozentin schreibt ... auf.

Here:

• schreibt = the conjugated part
• auf = the separable prefix, sent to the end of the clause

The dictionary form is:

• aufschreiben = to write down

Examples:

• Ich schreibe das Wort auf.
• Wir schreiben die Antwort auf.

With another verb, the full infinitive stays together:

• Die Dozentin will die wichtigsten Wörter aufschreiben.

Because German adjectives change their endings depending on:

• gender
• number
• case
• the article before them

In die wichtigsten Wörter:

• Wörter is plural
• it is in the accusative
• it comes after the definite article die

After a definite article, adjectives often take the weak ending, and here that ending is -en.

So:

• wichtig = important
• wichtigst- = most important
• wichtigsten = the correct inflected form here

Compare:

• wichtige Wörter = important words
• die wichtigen Wörter = the important words
• die wichtigsten Wörter = the most important words

Yes. It is the superlative form of wichtig.

The three common degrees are:

• wichtig = important
• wichtiger = more important
• am wichtigsten = most important

Before a noun, German usually uses the attributive superlative form:

• die wichtigsten Wörter = the most important words

So wichtigsten here means most important, not just important.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So in this sentence:

• Dozentin is capitalized because it is a noun
• Wörter is capitalized because it is a noun
• Whiteboard is capitalized because it is a noun

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.

Both are plural forms of Wort, but they are used a little differently.

• Wörter usually means individual words as separate vocabulary items
• Worte often refers to words as part of an utterance, statement, or quotation

Here, die wichtigsten Wörter means the lecturer is writing down key vocabulary items or terms, so Wörter is the natural choice.

Examples:

• neue Wörter lernen = learn new words
• seine letzten Worte = his last words

Because auf is the preposition used here to show that something is being written onto a surface.

The phrase tells us where the words are being written:

• auf das Whiteboard = onto the whiteboard / on the whiteboard

Also, auf is a two-way preposition, which means it can take either dative or accusative depending on the meaning. Here the accusative das Whiteboard is used because the idea is that the words are being put onto the board.

So the sentence has:

• direct object: die wichtigsten Wörter
• prepositional phrase: auf das Whiteboard

The whiteboard is not the thing being written; it is the surface the words go onto.

Whiteboard is a borrowed noun from English, and in German it is commonly treated as neuter, so:

• das Whiteboard

Unfortunately, there is no perfect rule that lets you guess every noun’s gender correctly. With many borrowed words, neuter is common, but not guaranteed. In practice, you usually just learn the noun together with its article:

• das Whiteboard
• der Computer
• die E-Mail

It is best to memorize the article as part of the word.

The sentence follows a very typical German main-clause pattern:

• Die Dozentin = subject
• schreibt = finite verb
• die wichtigsten Wörter = direct object
• auf das Whiteboard = prepositional phrase
• auf = separable prefix at the end

The most important rule is that in a normal German main clause, the finite verb comes in second position.

So even if you move another element to the front, the verb still stays second:

• Heute schreibt die Dozentin die wichtigsten Wörter auf das Whiteboard auf.

That verb-second rule is one of the key things English speakers need to get used to in German.