Если Вам что-то непонятно, не бойтесь переспрашивать преподавателя.

Capitalizing Вы / Вам / Вас is a polite, respectful way to address one person in Russian, especially in formal writing, notices, emails, or educational materials.

So Вам here shows politeness, like addressing the listener as you in a respectful way.

If it were written вам with a lowercase letter, the meaning would stay the same; it would just look less formally polite or more neutral.

Because Russian uses the dative case with words like понятно, непонятно, ясно, интересно, and so on.

So:

• Вам непонятно = It is unclear to you
• Мне понятно = It is clear to me

This is a very common Russian pattern. English uses you as the subject, but Russian often expresses this as a state experienced by/for someone, so the person goes into the dative.

Russian usually omits the present-tense form of to be.

So English:

• If something is unclear to you

becomes Russian:

• Если Вам что-то непонятно

There is no separate word for is here. This is normal in Russian present-tense sentences.

Что-то means something.

So:

• Если Вам что-то непонятно = If something is unclear to you

It refers to some part of the explanation, lesson, or instructions that the listener may not understand.

Both can be possible in some contexts, but что-то is very natural here.

A useful way to feel the difference is:

• что-то = something
• что-нибудь = anything / something or other

In this sentence, the speaker means if there is something you don’t understand, so что-то works very well.

If you said Если Вам что-нибудь непонятно, that would also be understandable and fairly natural, but что-то is a very standard choice here.

Here непонятно means unclear / not understandable and is used in an impersonal construction:

• Вам непонятно = It is unclear to you

It comes from понятный meaning clear, understandable, but in this sentence it functions more like a predicative word: it describes a state rather than directly modifying a noun.

So this is not an unclear thing; it is more like something is unclear.

Because непонятно here simply forms the opposite meaning of понятно:

• понятно = clear
• непонятно = unclear

In Russian, не is often written together with words like this when it creates a straightforward opposite meaning.

Writing it separately, не понятно, is much less neutral and usually appears with contrast or special emphasis.

Because Если Вам что-то непонятно is a subordinate clause introduced by если meaning if.

Russian separates that clause from the main clause with a comma:

• Если Вам что-то непонятно, не бойтесь...

This is the normal punctuation pattern for conditional clauses.

Не бойтесь is the imperative form of бояться, used for:

• you plural
• or polite you (Вы)

So it means:

• don’t be afraid

The ending -йтесь shows both:

1. the polite/plural imperative
2. the fact that the verb is reflexive: бояться

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• бояться + infinitive = to be afraid to do something

So:

• не бойтесь переспрашивать = don’t be afraid to ask again / ask for clarification

You can think of it as:

• Don’t be afraid to do X

Переспрашивать means to ask again, to ask someone to repeat, or to ask for clarification again.

In this sentence, it does not mean challenging the teacher. It means something polite like:

• asking the teacher to repeat
• checking that you understood correctly
• asking again if something was not clear

So it is a very normal classroom verb.

This is about aspect.

• переспрашивать = imperfective
• переспросить = perfective

The imperfective переспрашивать is good here because the sentence gives general advice: whenever this situation happens, don’t be afraid to ask again.

It sounds like a general policy or habit:

• If something is unclear, don’t be afraid to ask again

You could also hear не бойтесь переспросить преподавателя. That would also be correct, but it would sound a bit more like don’t be afraid to ask once / in that moment.

Because преподавателя is the direct object of переспрашивать, so it goes in the accusative case.

The noun преподаватель is:

• masculine
• animate

For masculine animate nouns, the accusative singular looks like the genitive singular:

• nominative: преподаватель
• accusative: преподавателя

So:

• переспрашивать преподавателя = to ask the teacher/instructor again

Преподаватель usually means teacher/instructor, often in a more formal or academic setting, especially for older students, university, courses, or specialized instruction.

Учитель is also teacher, but it is more strongly associated with school teachers.

So преподавателя fits very naturally in a classroom/course context, especially in adult education or higher education.