Мама надела тёплый шарф поверх пальто.

This is one of the most common Russian learner questions.

In careful standard Russian:

• надеть = to put on a piece of clothing
• одеть = to dress someone

So:

• Мама надела тёплый шарф. = Mom put on a warm scarf.
• Мама одела ребёнка. = Mom dressed the child.

A common memory trick is:

• надеть что? = put on what?
• одеть кого? = dress whom?

So here шарф is the thing being put on, which is why надела is the right verb.

Because it is past tense, feminine, singular.

The infinitive is надеть. In the past tense, Russian verbs change for gender and number:

• надел = he put on
• надела = she put on
• надело = it put on
• надели = they put on

Since мама is feminine, the verb is надела.

It is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of надела.

But for masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative often looks exactly like the nominative.

So:

• nominative: тёплый шарф
• accusative: тёплый шарф

That is why nothing visibly changes here.

Compare with an animate masculine noun:

• nominative: новый брат
• accusative: нового брата

So the case is there grammatically, even if the form does not change.

Поверх means over, on top of, or over the top of.

So:

• поверх пальто = over the coat

It shows that the scarf was put on outside the coat, not under it.

This is slightly more specific than just на пальто in some contexts. Поверх emphasizes layering: one thing is placed over another.

Поверх normally takes the genitive case.

So the pattern is:

• поверх + genitive

Examples:

• поверх стола = over/on top of the table
• поверх рубашки = over the shirt
• поверх пальто = over the coat

So in this sentence, пальто is functioning as genitive after поверх.

Because пальто is an indeclinable noun.

That means it keeps the same form in all cases:

• nominative: пальто
• accusative: пальто
• genitive: пальто
• dative: пальто
• etc.

So even though поверх requires the genitive, the word still stays пальто.

This happens with a number of borrowed words in Russian, such as:

• пальто = coat
• метро = metro
• кино = cinema/movie

Yes. Russian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here шарф is:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative (same form as nominative because it is inanimate)

So the adjective must match it:

• тёплый шарф

If the noun were feminine, for example шапка, you would get:

• тёплую шапку

So тёплый is just the correct agreeing form for шарф.

Yes, it could be rearranged, because Russian word order is fairly flexible.

The neutral order here is:

• Мама надела тёплый шарф поверх пальто.

But you could also say:

• Мама поверх пальто надела тёплый шарф.
• Тёплый шарф мама надела поверх пальто.

These versions shift emphasis a bit:

• putting тёплый шарф first emphasizes the scarf
• putting поверх пальто earlier emphasizes where it was worn

The original sentence sounds neutral and natural.

Надела is the past tense of the perfective verb надеть.

Perfective usually presents the action as:

• completed
• whole
• finished

So Мама надела тёплый шарф means that she put it on as a completed action.

The imperfective partner is надевать:

• Мама надевала тёплый шарф.

That could mean she was putting it on, used to put it on, or did so repeatedly, depending on context.

So the perfective here fits a simple completed event.

Yes, but in tone it is usually closer to mom than to the more formal mother.

• мама = mom / mum / mommy, depending on context
• мать = mother

So this sentence sounds natural and everyday, not formal.

A helpful stress guide is:

• Ма́ма наде́ла тёплый шарф пове́рх пальто́.

Roughly:

• Ма́ма = MA-ma
• наде́ла = na-DYE-la
• тёплый = TYOP-lyy
• шарф = sharf
• пове́рх = pa-VYERKH
• пальто́ = pal-TO

A few notes:

• ё is always stressed and sounds like yo
• льт in пальто can feel tricky for English speakers
• шарф ends in a firm consonant cluster, so say it cleanly: sharf

By itself, the sentence most naturally means Mom put on a warm scarf.

Russian focuses on the clothing item with надеть:

• надеть шарф = put on a scarf

If you want to show clearly that she put it on someone else, Russian often adds the person:

• Мама надела ребёнку тёплый шарф.
  = Mom put a warm scarf on the child.

So without another person mentioned, the default reading is that мама herself put on the scarf.