Breakdown of Подними руку, пожалуйста, если тебе что‑то непонятно.
Questions & Answers about Подними руку, пожалуйста, если тебе что‑то непонятно.
Подними is the 2nd‑person singular imperative form (a command/request) of the verb поднять (to raise / to lift).
You’ll often see this imperative ending -и with many perfective verbs: поднять → подними, сказать → скажи, включить → включи.
In commands, perfective typically means do it once / achieve the result: подними руку = raise your hand (once, as an action).
Imperfective often suggests process, repetition, or “start/keep doing”: поднимай руку can sound like “raise your hand (repeatedly / as a general instruction)” or “go ahead, raise it.”
Because руку is the accusative singular of рука (hand). After a verb like поднять (to raise), the direct object is in the accusative:
- рука (nominative) → руку (accusative)
Russian often uses the singular in this classroom-style instruction because the “standard action” is raising one hand to signal you have a question.
If you literally mean both hands, you’d say подними обе руки or подними руки (plural).
Пожалуйста adds politeness: it’s like please.
Its position is flexible; common options include:
- Подними руку, пожалуйста, если…
- Пожалуйста, подними руку, если…
- Подними, пожалуйста, руку, если…
All are natural; the first is very typical.
Because если тебе что‑то непонятно is a subordinate conditional clause (if…). In Russian, subordinate clauses introduced by если are normally separated by a comma from the main clause.
This is a common Russian structure: [to someone] + [is unclear].
- тебе (dative) = to you / for you
- непонятно = unclear (as a predicative)
So тебе что‑то непонятно is literally “something is unclear to you,” and it often sounds more natural/neutral than directly saying ты не понимаешь (“you don’t understand”), which can feel more blunt.
Непонятно here functions as a predicative word (often treated like an adverb/short-form predicate) meaning unclear / not understandable.
It doesn’t change for gender/number because it’s used in an impersonal-style statement: (it is) unclear.
Because the construction кому + (не)понятно requires the dative to mark the person experiencing the lack of clarity:
- мне понятно / мне непонятно = it’s clear/unclear to me
- тебе понятно / тебе непонятно = to you
- вам понятно / вам непонятно = to you (polite/plural)
что‑то means something (an indefinite “something”). Russian indefinite pronouns like this are commonly written with a hyphen:
- что‑то (something)
- кто‑то (someone)
- где‑то (somewhere)
The hyphen is standard spelling; что то without a hyphen would usually be interpreted differently (often as two separate words in other contexts).
Word order is flexible. Тебе что‑то непонятно is very natural because что‑то sits close to непонятно. You may also hear:
- Если тебе непонятно что‑то, … (also possible, slightly different emphasis)
Changing order mainly changes emphasis, not the core grammar.
Use вы/вам and the plural/polite imperative:
- Поднимите руку, пожалуйста, если вам что‑то непонятно.
For a group informally (multiple people you address as вы plural), it’s the same form: поднимите.