Learn Hardcore Russian: Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку.

So Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку means Today I put on a belt and a new shirt (the action of putting them on happened and is completed).

Key points:

надеть = to put something on (one completed action)
It does not mean to wear in the general sense; it’s the act of putting clothes on.

What is the difference between надеть and одеть? I often see both.

This is a very common confusion, even for native Russian speakers.

Strictly speaking:

надеть что? = to put something on yourself or someone
- надеть ремень – to put on a belt
- надеть рубашку – to put on a shirt
одеть кого? = to dress someone (to put clothes on a person)
- одеть ребёнка – to dress a child
- одеть куклу – to dress a doll

In your sentence, the object is clothing (ремень, рубашку), so standard literary Russian requires надел, not одел.

Many people in everyday speech do say одел ремень / рубашку, but it is considered incorrect or at least non‑standard. For learners, it is best to stick to:

надеть + clothing
одеть + person

Why is it надел, and not something like надевал?

Russian verbs come in aspect pairs:

надевать (imperfective) – to be putting on, to put on repeatedly, to focus on the process or habit
надеть (perfective) – to put on once, focusing on the completed result

Past tense:

я надевал ремень – I was putting on / I used to put on a belt (process or habitual action)
я надел ремень – I put on a belt (one completed event, result)

In Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку, the speaker is talking about a single, completed action that happened today, so the perfective надел is used.

Why is the verb ending -ел? How does it change for female or plural speakers?

Past tense verbs in Russian agree with the gender and number of the subject.

The infinitive is надеть. In the past tense:

Masculine singular: он надел – he put on
Feminine singular: она надела – she put on
Neuter singular: оно надело – it put on
Plural (any gender mix): они надели – they put on

Your sentence assumes a male speaker:

Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку – said by a man or boy.

If a woman says it, it becomes:

Сегодня я надела ремень и новую рубашку.

Why is it рубашку and not рубашка?

Рубашка is a feminine noun.

рубашка – nominative case (used for the subject of the sentence)
рубашку – accusative case (used for the direct object, when it is something affected by the action)

In this sentence, рубашку is what you put on; it is the direct object of надел:

я надел (что?) рубашку → accusative case

So the ending -у tells you that it’s the direct object.

Why doesn’t ремень change its form in the accusative, like рубашка → рубашку?

Ремень is a masculine inanimate noun.

In Russian:

For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative form is the same as the nominative:
- nominative: ремень
- accusative: ремень

For feminine nouns ending in -а / -я, the accusative usually changes:

рубашка → рубашку
книга → книгу
машина → машину

So:

я надел (что?) ремень – form stays ремень
я надел (что?) рубашку – form changes to рубашку

Why is the adjective новую used, and how does it agree with рубашку?

Новая рубашка means new shirt in the nominative case.

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Nominative feminine: новая рубашка (who? what? – subject)
Accusative feminine singular: новую рубашку (whom? what? – direct object)

The pattern:

-ая → -ую in the feminine accusative:
- новая → новую
- красивая → красивую
- белая → белую

So:

я надел (что?) новую рубашку – the adjective новую matches рубашку in gender (feminine), number (singular), and case (accusative).

Does новую describe both ремень and рубашку, or only рубашку?

As the sentence is written:

Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку.

Новую grammatically describes only рубашку, because:

it stands directly before рубашку, and
its form (новую) is feminine, matching рубашку, not the masculine ремень.

So the meaning is:

Today I put on a belt and a new shirt. (the shirt is new; we say nothing about the age of the belt)

If you want to say that both the belt and the shirt are new, you would usually say:

Сегодня я надел новый ремень и новую рубашку.

Can I change the word order, like Я сегодня надел ремень и новую рубашку?

Yes, that is perfectly correct:

Сегодня я надел ремень и новую рубашку.
Я сегодня надел ремень и новую рубашку.

Both are natural.

In Russian, word order is relatively flexible. Сегодня (today) and я (I) can swap positions without changing the basic meaning. The version with Сегодня at the beginning slightly emphasizes today as the time frame, but both are very normal.

Why is there no word for a or the in the Russian sentence?

Russian does not use articles like English a / an / the.

So:

ремень can mean a belt or the belt, depending on context.
новую рубашку can mean a new shirt or the new shirt.

The listener figures out whether it is a or the from the situation and context, not from a separate word. That’s why the Russian sentence has fewer words than the English translation.

How is this sentence pronounced, especially the stress?

Here is the sentence with stressed syllables marked in capital letters:

СегОдня я надЕл ремЕнь и нОвую рубАшку.

Rough guide:

Сегодня – sih-GOHD-nya (stress on го)
я – ya
надел – na-DYEL (short e, not like English deal)
ремень – ree-MEN’ (soft нь at the end)
и – ee
новую – NO-vu-yu (stress on но)
рубашку – ru-BASH-koo (stress on ба)

All unstressed о are pronounced like a short a in casual speech, so сегодня sounds closer to сиводня.