Коллекционер разглядывает фарфор.

Коллекционер is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence — the person doing the action.

Its dictionary form is also коллекционер, so here nothing changes.

• коллекционер = nominative singular
• masculine noun
• means a male collector, or simply collector when gender is not the main point

In this sentence, it answers the question Who is doing the action? → коллекционер.

Yes — it is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object. But with many Russian nouns, the accusative looks exactly like the nominative.

That is what happens here:

• nominative: фарфор
• accusative: фарфор

This is because фарфор is:

• masculine
• singular
• inanimate

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

So even though the word does not visibly change, its role in the sentence is still accusative object.

Разглядывает is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• imperfective aspect

It comes from the verb разглядывать.

So the ending -ет here tells you the subject is he / she / it or a singular noun such as коллекционер.

You can think of it as:

• я разглядываю = I am examining
• ты разглядываешь = you are examining
• он / она разглядывает = he / she is examining

Since коллекционер is singular, the verb is also singular: разглядывает.

Yes. In Russian, the present tense of an imperfective verb can often translate as either:

• examines
• is examining

The exact English translation depends on context.

So разглядывает can mean:

• a general/habitual action: examines
• an action happening now: is examining

Russian does not force the same present simple vs. present continuous distinction that English does.

Both are related to looking, but разглядывает is more specific.

• смотрит = looks, watches
• разглядывает = looks at closely, examines visually, studies with attention

So разглядывает suggests the collector is not just glancing at the porcelain, but inspecting it carefully — maybe admiring details, checking quality, or studying its features.

That makes it a very natural verb for a collector.

Russian has no articles, so it does not use separate words like a, an, or the.

That means:

• коллекционер can mean a collector or the collector
• фарфор can mean porcelain, the porcelain, or sometimes a porcelain item / porcelain ware, depending on context

Russian leaves that information to context.

So when reading Russian, English speakers often have to mentally supply a or the based on the situation.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Most basically, фарфор means porcelain as a material. But in real usage, it can also refer more broadly to porcelain ware or porcelain items collectively.

In this sentence, a collector examining porcelain could mean:

• the material or craftsmanship of porcelain
• a porcelain piece
• porcelain items as collectibles

Russian often uses mass nouns this way, and context tells you whether the meaning is more abstract or more concrete.

Yes. Коллекционер разглядывает фарфор uses a very common neutral word order:

• Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Коллекционер = subject
• разглядывает = verb
• фарфор = object

This is the most straightforward, unmarked way to say it.

Russian word order is more flexible than English, though. You could rearrange the sentence for emphasis:

• Фарфор разглядывает коллекционер — emphasizes porcelain
• Разглядывает коллекционер фарфор — more literary or marked

But the original sentence is the most neutral and standard.

The stress is important in Russian.

• коллекционе́р
• разгля́дывает
• фарфо́р

A rough pronunciation guide:

• коллекционе́р ≈ ka-lyik-tsi-a-NYER
• разгля́дывает ≈ raz-GLYA-dy-va-yet
• фарфо́р ≈ far-FOR

A few notes:

• Unstressed о is often pronounced more like a.
• The я in гля gives a gl ya sound.
• Final р in фарфор is rolled or tapped, not like English r.

Yes, разглядывать is imperfective. It presents the action as ongoing, repeated, or viewed from the inside.

A common perfective partner is разглядеть.

Very roughly:

• разглядывать = to examine/look at closely
• разглядеть = to make out, discern, manage to see, or in some contexts to have examined successfully

However, these two are not always perfect one-to-one equivalents in every situation. The perfective разглядеть often has the sense of finally seeing clearly or making something out.

So in this sentence, разглядывает is natural because it focuses on the ongoing act of looking closely.

Grammatically, коллекционер is a masculine noun. In most ordinary usage, it refers to a male collector.

If you specifically want to refer to a female collector, Russian may use:

• коллекционерка — explicitly female, though style and frequency can vary by context

In many textbook sentences, the masculine form is just used as the basic dictionary noun. But in real life, if gender matters, Russian can mark it more clearly.

In this sentence as written, most readers would understand коллекционер as masculine.