Я проверил, не попал ли важный запрос в спам.

In Russian, не ... ли is a very common way to introduce an indirect yes/no question after verbs like проверить (to check), спросить (to ask), посмотреть (to see), узнать (to find out), and so on.

So Я проверил, не попал ли важный запрос в спам means:

• I checked whether the important request ended up in spam

Here, не does not simply mean normal negation. The whole pattern не ... ли works like whether in English.

Compare:

• Я спросил, придёт ли он. = I asked whether he would come.
• Я проверил, не пришло ли письмо. = I checked whether the email had arrived.

So in this sentence, не is part of a standard Russian structure, not a straightforward not.

Ли marks an indirect yes/no question. In English, it is often translated as whether or sometimes if.

In this sentence:

• не попал ли важный запрос в спам

the speaker is not stating a fact; they are referring to a question they checked:

• Did the important request end up in spam?

That is why ли is used.

A key point: ли usually comes after the word it focuses on. Here it comes after попал, so the structure is:

• не попал ли ... = whether it ended up / whether it had gone

Ли normally comes right after the word or phrase it is attached to. In indirect questions, that often means it comes after the verb.

So:

• не попал ли важный запрос в спам is natural
• не важный ли запрос попал в спам would mean something different: was it the important request that ended up in spam?

That second version shifts the focus to важный.

So the position of ли matters. In your sentence, it is attached to попал, because the question is about the event itself: whether it ended up in spam.

Проверил is the past tense of проверить (to check, perfective).

Russian past tense agrees with gender and number:

• проверил = masculine singular
• проверила = feminine singular
• проверило = neuter singular
• проверили = plural

So Я проверил tells us the speaker is male, or at least grammatically represented as masculine.

If the speaker were female, it would be:

• Я проверила, не попал ли важный запрос в спам.

Because the speaker is checking whether a completed event happened:

• Did the important request end up in spam?

Russian uses попал here because the idea is ending up / getting into spam as a completed result.

So:

• попал = ended up / got into

If you used an imperfective form like попадал, it would sound wrong here for the normal meaning. The sentence is about one completed occurrence, not a repeated or ongoing process.

Because запрос is the subject of попал.

Structure:

• важный запрос попал в спам
• The important request ended up in spam

Here:

• важный запрос = subject
• попал = verb
• в спам = destination/result

So запрос stays in the nominative, and важный agrees with it:

• важный запрос

This is a very important Russian case distinction.

• в + accusative often indicates movement into something
• в + prepositional often indicates location in something

Compare:

• попал в спам = ended up in spam / went into the spam folder
• лежит в спаме = is sitting in the spam folder

So in your sentence, the idea is not just location, but the result of entering that category/folder. That is why Russian uses:

• в спам (accusative)

rather than:

• в спаме (prepositional)

Yes. In modern Russian, especially in email and internet contexts, спам is commonly used just like this.

For example:

• письмо попало в спам = the email went to spam
• проверь спам = check your spam
• папка Спам = Spam folder

So в спам is very natural in everyday digital communication.

Because the sentence contains a main clause and a subordinate clause.

Main clause:

• Я проверил = I checked

Subordinate clause:

• не попал ли важный запрос в спам = whether the important request ended up in spam

Russian normally separates this kind of subordinate clause with a comma.

So the comma marks the boundary between:

• what the speaker did
• what exactly they checked

This is an aspect question.

• проверил = perfective, one completed check
• проверял = imperfective, was checking / checked repeatedly / used to check

In this sentence, the natural meaning is that the speaker completed the action once:

• I checked whether the important request ended up in spam

So проверил fits best.

If you said Я проверял..., it would suggest a process, repeated checking, or background action, depending on context.

Yes, but it would sound a bit different.

You can say:

• Я проверил, попал ли важный запрос в спам.

This also means I checked whether the important request ended up in spam.

However, with verbs like проверить, посмотреть, убедиться, Russian very often uses не ... ли, especially when checking for a possibly undesirable event.

So:

• не попал ли sounds especially natural here

because ending up in spam is something unwanted, and Russian often phrases that kind of check with не ... ли.

Yes, depending on context.

Запрос is a broad word and can mean things like:

• request
• inquiry
• query
• ticket or support request in some business/technical contexts

In this sentence, the exact English word depends on what kind of communication is meant. If it is a customer email, request or inquiry may sound best. If it is technical, query might work in the right context.

So the Russian grammar does not change, but the most natural English translation depends on the situation.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but the neutral version here is very good:

• Я проверил, не попал ли важный запрос в спам.

Other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Я проверил, не попал ли в спам важный запрос.

This version emphasizes в спам a bit more.

But you cannot move things freely without changing focus. Also, ли must stay in a suitable position, usually right after the focused word.

So for a learner, the original order is the safest and most natural pattern to remember.