Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.

Every driver is obliged to follow the traffic rules.

Breakdown of Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.

• каждый: every
• правило: the rule
• водитель: the driver
• соблюдать: to follow
• дорожный: road
• движение: the movement
• обязан: obliged

Questions & Answers about Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.

What grammatical role and case does водитель have in this sentence?

Водитель is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular case (masculine).

• Каждый водитель = every driver (subject)
• обязан соблюдать = is obliged to observe (predicate)
• правила дорожного движения = the traffic rules (object)

So водитель answers the question “who is obliged?” and therefore must be in the nominative case.

What exactly does каждый mean here, and how is it different from все?

Каждый means “each / every (single)” and emphasizes individuals one by one.

• Каждый водитель обязан… = Every (each) driver is obliged…
  – Focus on each individual driver having this obligation.

You could also say:

• Все водители обязаны соблюдать правила дорожного движения.
  (All drivers are obliged to observe the traffic rules.)

Differences:

• каждый + singular:
  
  • Verb/adjective agrees in singular: каждый водитель обязан
  • Emphasizes the personal responsibility of each driver.
• все + plural:
  
  • Verb/adjective agrees in plural: все водители обязаны
  • Emphasizes the group as a whole.

Both are correct; this sentence prefers каждый to stress that no individual driver is an exception.

Why is it каждый водитель обязан (singular) and not something like a plural form?

Because каждый grammatically behaves like a singular adjective modifying a singular noun:

• каждый (who?) водитель (what is he?) обязан

So the pattern is:

• masculine singular: каждый водитель обязан
• feminine singular: каждая женщина обязана
• plural with все: все водители обязаны

Even though the meaning covers many people, каждый водитель is grammatically singular, so обязан must also be singular masculine.

What is обязан? Is it a verb like “must”?

Обязан is not a verb; it is a short-form adjective meaning “obliged / required / duty-bound”.

• Full form: обязанный
• Short forms:
  • masculine: обязан
  • feminine: обязана
  • neuter: обязано
  • plural: обязаны

In sentences like this, short-form adjectives function like “be + adjective” in English:

• он обязан ≈ he is obliged / he must
• она обязана ≈ she is obliged / she must
• они обязаны ≈ they are obliged / they must

Compare with должен:

• должен is also a short-form adjective (“must / should / ought to”)
• обязан usually sounds stronger and more formal, often with a sense of legal or official duty, not just moral expectation.

In this sentence, обязан fits well because it sounds like a legal requirement from the traffic code.

Why is the infinitive соблюдать used after обязан?

Russian often uses a short-form adjective of obligation + infinitive:

• обязан соблюдать = is obliged to observe
• должен соблюдать = must observe
• вправе делать = has the right to do

Here, соблюдать is the imperfective infinitive, which is used for:

• general rules
• repeated, habitual, or ongoing actions

So:

• Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила…
  = Drivers must regularly / always follow the rules, not just once.

The perfective infinitive соблюсти (“to observe once, to manage to observe”) would not be used for a general legal obligation like this; it would sound wrong in this context.

What does соблюдать actually mean here? Is it the same as “follow”?

Соблюдать means “to observe, to comply with, to abide by (rules, laws, norms)”.

In this sentence, it is very close to English “to follow (the rules)”, but the nuance is:

• соблюдать правила = to observe / comply with / abide by the rules

Common collocations:

• соблюдать правила – observe/follow rules
• соблюдать закон – obey the law
• соблюдать тишину – keep silence
• соблюдать диету – follow a diet

Other possible verbs:

• следовать правилам (dative) – follow the rules
• выполнять правила – fulfill the rules (more about carrying out instructions)

But in legal and official language about rules and laws, соблюдать is very standard and natural.

What case and number is правила, and why is it plural?

Правила is:

• number: plural
• case: accusative plural, because it is the direct object of соблюдать.

The noun правило (rule) is neuter:

• singular:
  • nominative: правило
  • accusative: правило
• plural:
  • nominative: правила
  • accusative: правила (same form)

In the sentence:

• соблюдать (что?) правила → direct object in the accusative.

It is plural because we are talking about all the traffic rules, not just one rule.

What case is дорожного движения, and how does this phrase work grammatically?

Дорожного движения is in the genitive singular:

• дорожного – genitive singular of the adjective дорожный (“road, relating to the road”)
• движения – genitive singular of движение (“movement, motion, traffic”)

Structure:

• правила (чего?) дорожного движения
  = rules *of road traffic*

So grammatically it is:

• правила – noun (accusative plural, direct object)
• дорожного движения – genitive phrase modifying правила (“rules of something”)

Semantically, дорожное движение is a set phrase meaning “road traffic”, so правила дорожного движения corresponds to “traffic rules / highway code”.

Why is it движения (singular genitive) and not a plural form like “движений”?

The noun движение in дорожное движение is used as a mass noun meaning “traffic”, not a countable “movement” that you’d count one by one.

Compare:

• движение – movement, traffic (as a general phenomenon)
• дорожное движение – road traffic (all traffic in general)

When we say:

• правила дорожного движения

we mean the rules of (all) road traffic as a system, not “the rules of many separate movements”. So it naturally stays singular:

• правила (чего?) дорожного движения – genitive singular

Is правила дорожного движения a fixed term? Is there a shorter way to say it?

Yes, правила дорожного движения is very much a fixed legal/official term in Russian. It corresponds to:

• the traffic regulations
• the highway code

Because it’s used so often, Russians very frequently shorten it to the abbreviation ПДД:

• соблюдать ПДД – to obey the traffic regulations
• нарушать ПДД – to break the traffic rules

So you might see, for example:

• Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать ПДД.

The full form in your sentence is stylistically formal and official, appropriate for laws, road signs, exams, etc.

Can the word order be changed, or must it stay exactly like this?

Russian word order is more flexible than English. Several variants are possible, with differences in emphasis, not in basic meaning.

Neutral or near-neutral options:

• Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.
  (original; fairly neutral)
• Каждый водитель обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.
  (same order; typical formal statement)
• Каждый обязан соблюдать правила дорожного движения.
  (omitting водитель but clearly talking about drivers from context)

Other possible, more emphatic orders:

• Соблюдать правила дорожного движения обязан каждый водитель.
  – Emphasis on what must be done (to observe the rules); slightly formal/bookish.
• Каждый водитель обязан правила дорожного движения соблюдать.
  – Possible in speech for added emphasis on соблюдать, but sounds a bit marked.

What you cannot do is break the basic logical connections in a way that sounds un-Russian, e.g.:

• ✗ Каждый водитель соблюдать обязан правила дорожного движения. (unnatural)
• ✗ Каждый правила дорожного движения обязан соблюдать водитель. (very awkward)

The original order is clear, standard, and natural, especially in official style.

How do you pronounce this sentence, and where are the stresses?

With stress marks in Russian:

• Ка́ждый води́тель обяза́н соблюда́ть пра́вила доро́жного движе́ния.

Approximate syllable-by-syllable guide (stressed syllables in CAPS):

• КАЖ-дый
• во-ДИ-тель
• об-я-ЗАН
• соб-лю-ДАТЬ
• ПРА-ви-ла
• до-РОЖ-но-ва
• дви-ЖЕ-ни-я

Very rough Latin transcription:

• KAZH-dyy va-DEE-tyel ob-ya-ZAN sab-lyu-DAT’ PRA-vee-la da-ROZH-na-va dvizh-É-nee-ya

Key points:

• жд in каждый sounds like [жд] (two sounds), not like English “just”.
• Final -ть in соблюдать is not pronounced strongly; it’s a soft [tʲ].
• Unstressed о (for example in доро́жного) is pronounced closer to “a”: [da-ROZH-na-va].