Напёрсток защищает палец.

The thimble protects the finger.

Breakdown of Напёрсток защищает палец.

• защищать: to protect
• палец: the finger
• напёрсток: the thimble

Questions & Answers about Напёрсток защищает палец.

Which word is the subject and which is the object in Напёрсток защищает палец?

Напёрсток is the subject: it is the thing doing the action.

Палец is the object: it is the thing receiving the action.

So the structure is:

• Напёрсток = thimble
• защищает = protects
• палец = finger

Literally: Thimble protects finger.

In natural English, we say A/The thimble protects a/the finger.

Why is палец in the form палец and not something different?

Because it is in the accusative case, and for many inanimate masculine nouns in Russian, the accusative singular looks exactly the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: палец
• accusative: палец

That is why the direct object still appears as палец.

This is very common in Russian:

• Я вижу стол. = I see the table.
• стол stays стол in the accusative because it is masculine singular and inanimate.

What form is защищает, and why does it end in -ет?