Заказчик считает знаки с пробелами.

Заказчик is a broad business word. Depending on context, it can mean:

• client
• customer
• commissioning party
• the person/company that ordered the work

In project, design, writing, translation, or software contexts, client is often the most natural English equivalent.

So in this sentence, заказчик is the person or company requesting the work and checking the character count.

Yes, считать has two common meanings:

1. to count
2. to consider / regard

Here it means to count because of the object знаки and the phrase с пробелами. Together they strongly suggest character counting.

Compare:

• Заказчик считает знаки. = The client counts characters.
• Заказчик считает это важным. = The client considers this important.

So the surrounding words make the meaning clear.

Here is the case breakdown:

• Заказчик — nominative singular
  It is the subject of the sentence.

• знаки — accusative plural
  It is the direct object of считает.
  Because знаки is an inanimate plural noun, its accusative form looks the same as the nominative plural.

• пробелами — instrumental plural
  After the preposition с in the sense of with, Russian uses the instrumental case.

So the structure is:

• Заказчик = who?
• считает = does what?
• знаки = counts what?
• с пробелами = with what? / including what?

The preposition с meaning with normally takes the instrumental case.

So:

• пробел = a space
• пробелами = with spaces

In this sentence, с пробелами literally means with spaces, but in English the natural meaning is including spaces.

This is a very common phrase in Russian when talking about text length:

• знаки с пробелами = characters including spaces
• знаки без пробелов = characters excluding spaces

Notice the contrast:

• с
  • instrumental → с пробелами
• без
  • genitive → без пробелов

Both words can be used, but they are not identical in feel.

• знак literally means sign or mark
• символ literally means symbol

In text-counting, publishing, editing, advertising, and academic formatting, знаки is a standard word for characters. The phrase количество знаков is very common.

So знаки с пробелами is a normal Russian way to say characters including spaces.

In some technical or computing contexts, символы may also sound natural, but знаки is absolutely standard in character-count language.

Считает is the 3rd person singular present form of считать.

So:

• я считаю = I count / I consider
• ты считаешь = you count / consider
• он / она / заказчик считает = he / she / the client counts / considers

It is imperfective, which means it can describe:

• a general fact
• a habitual action
• an ongoing process

In this sentence, it most likely describes a general or routine action: the client counts characters including spaces.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

This sentence uses a very neutral, straightforward order:

• subject
  • verb
    • object

That makes it feel natural and unmarked.

You could change the order for emphasis, for example:

• Знаки с пробелами считает заказчик.
  Emphasis on it is the client who counts the characters including spaces.

• С пробелами заказчик считает знаки.
  Stronger emphasis on including spaces.

But the original sentence is the most neutral version.

Russian has no articles.

So заказчик can mean:

• a client
• the client

and знаки can mean:

• characters
• the characters

The exact meaning depends on context.

In most real situations, the listener already knows which client is being discussed, so English will often use the client.

A little, yes — especially if you are reading it word by word.

A beginner might momentarily wonder whether it means something like The client considers the signs with spaces... But in normal Russian, that reading does not fit the sentence well.

Why not?

• считать in the sense to consider usually needs a fuller structure, often with a second part:

  • считать что-то важным
  • считать, что...

• знаки с пробелами is a fixed-looking phrase in writing and formatting contexts, so native speakers naturally understand it as characters including spaces.

So in practice, the intended meaning is very clear.

The stress is:

• заказчик
• считает
• знаки
• пробелами

So the whole sentence is:

заказчИк считАет знАки с пробЕлами

If you want a rough pronunciation guide:

• заказчик ≈ za-kaz-cheek
• считает ≈ shchi-TA-yet
• знаки ≈ ZNA-kee
• с пробелами ≈ s pra-BYE-la-mi

The beginning сч in считает can be tricky for English speakers; it is pronounced like a soft shch sound.