Учитель подчёркивает важное правило.

The teacher emphasizes the important rule.

Breakdown of Учитель подчёркивает важное правило.

• учитель: the teacher
• правило: the rule
• важный: important
• подчёркивать: to emphasize

Questions & Answers about Учитель подчёркивает важное правило.

Where is the article “the” or “an” in Учитель подчёркивает важное правило?

Russian does not use definite or indefinite articles like English. A bare noun can mean “a,” “an,” or “the” depending on context. So Учитель подчёркивает важное правило can be translated either as “The teacher emphasizes an important rule” or “The teacher emphasizes the important rule,” depending on what you already know about the rule.

What are the parts of speech and grammatical roles of each word in this sentence?

• Учитель – masculine noun, nominative singular, subject (“teacher”).
• подчёркивает – verb, 3rd person singular, present tense, imperfective aspect (“emphasizes/underlines”).
• важное – adjective, neuter singular, agrees with правило; here in accusative case.
• правило – neuter noun, accusative singular, direct object (“rule”).

Why is подчёркивает spelled with ё and how do you pronounce it?

The letter ё indicates both the sound [yo] and the stress. So подчёркивает is pronounced [pod-CHYOR-kee-vah-yet], with the main stress on the syllable containing ё. Without the diacritic it would look like “подчеркивает,” which can make stress rules less obvious.

What aspect and tense is подчёркивает, and how can you say “the teacher emphasized the rule once”?

• подчёркивает is imperfective aspect, present tense, 3rd person singular. It describes a habitual or ongoing action.
• To express a single, completed action (perfective) in the past, use подчеркнуть → past masculine подчеркнул.
  Example: Учитель подчеркнул важное правило. (“The teacher emphasized the important rule.”)

What case is важное правило in, and why does правило not change its ending?

важное правило is in the accusative singular because it’s the direct object of the verb. Neuter nouns ending in -о (like правило) have the same form in nominative and accusative when they are inanimate, so правило stays правило.

Why does the adjective важное end with -ое?

Adjectives in Russian must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case. Here правило is neuter, singular, accusative. For inanimate neuter singular nouns, the accusative ending is -ое (same as the nominative), hence важное.

Could подчёркивает be translated as “underline” instead of “emphasize”? What’s the nuance?

Yes. подчёркивать literally means “to underline” (as with a pen), but it’s often used figuratively as “to emphasize” or “highlight.” In formal contexts you might actually underline text; in speech or writing you’re just stressing its importance.