Очевидно, поезд опаздывает.

Obviously, the train is late.

Breakdown of Очевидно, поезд опаздывает.

• поезд: the train
• опаздывать: to be late
• очевидно: obviously; evidently

Questions & Answers about Очевидно, поезд опаздывает.

Why is there a comma after очевидно?

Because очевидно is being used as an introductory word here, meaning something like obviously, evidently, or apparently from the speaker’s point of view.

So the structure is:

Очевидно, поезд опаздывает.
= Obviously, the train is late / is running late.

In Russian, introductory words are often separated by commas.

Compare:

• Очевидно, поезд опаздывает. = Obviously, the train is late.
• Это очевидно. = This is obvious.

In the second sentence, очевидно is not introductory; it is part of the main statement, so there is no comma.

What part of speech is очевидно here?

Here, очевидно functions as an introductory word rather than a regular adverb.

That means it does not describe the verb опаздывает directly in the same way an ordinary adverb would. Instead, it comments on the whole sentence: the speaker is saying that the fact is obvious.

A useful way to think about it:

• Очевидно, поезд опаздывает.
  = It is obvious / obviously, the train is late.

So grammatically, it is best understood as a parenthetical or introductory element.

Why is поезд in the nominative case?