Если ты не расслышал адрес, лучше переспросить сразу у водителя.

Расслышать means to make out / hear clearly / catch what was said, especially when something was hard to hear.

So:

• слышать = to hear, to be able to hear
• услышать = to hear, to catch a sound/event
• расслышать = to hear clearly enough to understand the words

In this sentence, the idea is not just that you failed to hear a sound, but that you didn’t catch the address properly. That is why не расслышал адрес is very natural here.

Russian often uses the past tense after если when talking about a real possible situation in the future, especially in advice like this.

So:

• Если ты не расслышал адрес...
  literally looks like If you didn’t catch the address...
• but in context it means something like
  If you don’t catch / if you didn’t manage to hear the address...

This is a normal Russian pattern. The first part describes the situation, and the second part gives advice.

Both kinds of structures can exist in Russian, but here the speaker is talking about a situation that may already have happened by the moment you realize there is a problem.

• Если ты не расслышал адрес, ... = if it turns out you didn’t catch the address
• Если ты не расслышишь адрес, ... would sound more like a prediction about a future event

The past tense version is very common in everyday advice and instructions.

In Russian, лучше + infinitive is a very common way to give advice in a general, natural way.

• Лучше переспросить сразу у водителя. = It’s better to ask the driver again right away.
• Лучше тебе переспросить... is possible, but it sounds more explicit and a bit more pointed: you’d better ask again...

Since the sentence already has ты in the first clause, Russian does not need to repeat the subject.

Переспросить means to ask again or to ask for repetition/clarification.

• спросить = to ask
• переспросить = to ask again, because you didn’t hear or understand properly

So if you missed the address, you do not just ask a new question — you ask again for the same information. That is why переспросить is used.

Сразу means right away / immediately and it modifies the action переспросить.

• лучше переспросить сразу у водителя = it’s better to ask the driver again immediately

The position is natural because Russian often places adverbs like сразу near the verb or infinitive they modify.

You could move it around a little, for example:

• лучше сразу переспросить у водителя

This also sounds natural and means almost the same thing.

After verbs like спросить / переспросить, Russian can use:

• the person directly as an object: спросить водителя
• or у + genitive: спросить у водителя

Both mean to ask the driver, but у водителя is extremely common in everyday Russian and often feels a little more conversational.

Here:

• водитель = driver
• у водителя = from the driver / of the driver, but idiomatically ask the driver

So переспросить у водителя means ask the driver again.

Because у requires the genitive case.

The dictionary form is:

• водитель = driver

After у, it becomes:

• у водителя

This is the masculine singular genitive ending for this noun.

Адрес is the direct object of расслышал: you didn’t hear the address.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is usually the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: адрес
• accusative: адрес

That is why the form does not visibly change.

Yes. Russian often drops subject pronouns when they are clear from context.

So you could also say:

• Если не расслышал адрес, лучше переспросить сразу у водителя.

This sounds natural in spoken Russian, especially as general advice.

However, including ты makes the sentence feel more directly addressed to one person: If you didn’t catch the address...

Yes. In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with gender in the singular.

• to a man: Если ты не расслышал адрес...
• to a woman: Если ты не расслышала адрес...

Everything else in the sentence can stay the same.

Here лучше means it’s better to.

It is not comparing two things in a full sentence like A is better than B. Instead, it introduces advice:

• лучше переспросить = it’s better to ask again

This is one of the most common and natural ways to give practical advice in Russian.

The word order is natural, but not completely fixed. Russian word order is flexible, and changes usually affect emphasis more than basic meaning.

Original:

• Если ты не расслышал адрес, лучше переспросить сразу у водителя.

Possible variation:

• Если ты не расслышал адрес, лучше сразу переспросить у водителя.

This version puts a little more emphasis on doing it immediately.

Another possible variation:

• Лучше сразу переспросить у водителя, если ты не расслышал адрес.

Same meaning, but the advice comes first.

So the original is natural, but not the only possible order.