Questions & Answers about Я плохо понимаю это правило.
In Russian, плохо is the natural adverb to express “badly / poorly.”
- Я плохо понимаю это правило. = I understand this rule badly / I don’t understand it well.
- Я не хорошо понимаю это правило. is grammatically correct but sounds awkward, overly literal, and much less natural.
Native speakers usually choose a single clear adverb (плохо, хорошо, отлично) rather than negating another adverb (like не хорошо) unless they want a special nuance, e.g. не очень хорошо (“not very well” = softer, more polite).
Плохо is an adverb (“badly”) and modifies the verb понимаю (“I understand”).
- плохо answers “How do I understand?” → badly
- плохой is an adjective (“bad”) used with nouns:
- плохой человек – a bad person
- плохое правило – a bad rule
So in Я плохо понимаю это правило, you are describing how you understand (adverb), not what kind of rule it is (adjective).
Это правило is in the accusative case, used for the direct object of the verb (what you understand).
- Verb: понимаю – “I understand”
- Object: (что?) это правило – “this rule”
For neuter inanimate nouns like правило, the accusative singular form is identical to the nominative singular:
- Nominative: правило
- Accusative: правило
So it looks like the dictionary form, but its function in the sentence is “what is being understood,” i.e., direct object → accusative.
The demonstrative этот / эта / это / эти must agree with the gender and number of the noun:
- этот – masculine (этот стол)
- эта – feminine (эта книга)
- это – neuter (это правило)
- эти – plural (эти правила)
Правило is neuter (it ends in -о and is classified as neuter), so you must use это.
Этот правило or эту правило is incorrect gender agreement.
Russian word order is relatively flexible, but the neutral, most common order in this sentence is:
- Я плохо понимаю это правило. – “I poorly understand this rule.”
Other orders are possible and can change emphasis:
- Я понимаю это правило плохо. – Focuses more on how you understand it, often with a slight contrast: “I do understand it, but poorly.”
- Это правило я плохо понимаю. – Emphasizes это правило (this particular rule): “This rule I understand poorly.”
All are grammatically correct; the given sentence is just the most straightforward, neutral wording.
Понимаю is the present tense of the imperfective verb понимать:
- понимать – to understand (process, state)
- понимаю – I understand / I am understanding (right now, generally)
Пойму is the future form of the perfective verb понять:
- понять – to understand (to come to understand, reach the result)
- пойму – I will understand (at some point, as a completed act)
So:
- Я плохо понимаю это правило. – Right now / in general, I don’t understand this rule well.
- Я не могу понять это правило. – I can’t manage to understand this rule (reach understanding).
- Я пойму это правило. – I will (eventually) understand this rule.
Понимать is a regular -ать verb (1st conjugation). Present tense:
- я понимаю – I understand
- ты понимаешь – you understand (singular, informal)
- он / она / оно понимает – he / she / it understands
- мы понимаем – we understand
- вы понимаете – you understand (plural / formal)
- они понимают – they understand
Stress: по-ни-ма-ю́, по-ни-ма́-ешь, по-ни-ма́-ет, по-ни-ма́-ем, по-ни-ма́-ете, по-ни-ма́-ют.
No, Я плохо не понимаю это правило is incorrect and confusing.
In Russian, you normally put the negation directly before the verb:
- Я не понимаю это правило. – I don’t understand this rule.
- Я плохо понимаю это правило. – I understand this rule badly.
Combining плохо and не this way doesn’t work. If you want both “not” and a degree, use:
- Я не очень хорошо понимаю это правило. – I don’t understand this rule very well.
Here, не negates очень хорошо, not понимаю directly.
Yes, Russians often soften плохо to sound less harsh or more polite. Common alternatives:
- Я не очень хорошо понимаю это правило. – I don’t understand this rule very well.
- Я не до конца понимаю это правило. – I don’t fully understand this rule.
- Мне трудно понять это правило. – It’s hard for me to understand this rule.
Плохо понимаю is direct and completely fine, but in conversation people often choose a softer phrasing to be more polite or less self-critical.
Правило is neuter. Most nouns ending in -о are neuter:
- окно – window (neuter)
- слово – word (neuter)
- правило – rule (neuter)
That’s why you use это правило, хорошее правило, новое правило (all neuter forms).
So: ending -о → usually neuter (with a few exceptions).
They look similar but function differently:
Это правило.
- Это = “this” (demonstrative pronoun modifying a noun)
- Meaning: “this rule” (as part of a longer sentence: Я плохо понимаю это правило.)
Это — правило.
- Это = “this is”
- The dash often marks a linking verb “is” in Russian.
- Meaning: “This is a rule.”
In Я плохо понимаю это правило, это is not “this is”; it is “this” modifying правило → this rule.
Stresses:
- пло́хо – пло́-хо
- понима́ю – по-ни-ма́-ю
- э́то – э́-то
- пра́вило – пра́-ви-ло
So the full sentence:
- Я плохо понимаю это правило.
- Я пло́хо понима́ю э́то пра́вило.
Unstressed о and е are reduced in fast speech, but if you keep these stresses, you’ll sound clear and correct.