Questions & Answers about Он надевает белую рубашку.
I always confuse надевать and одевать. Why is it надевает here?
The verb надевать means "to put on" an item of clothing or an accessory, while одевать means "to dress" a person or an animal. Since he is putting on an inanimate object (a shirt), we use надевает. A famous Russian rhyme to remember this rule is: "Надеть одежду, одеть Надежду" (Put on clothes, dress Nadezhda).
Why are we using рубашку instead of the dictionary form рубашка?
Because the shirt is the direct object—it is the thing receiving the action of being put on. In Russian, direct objects take the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -а like рубашка, the ending changes to -у in the accusative.
Why does the adjective белую have that -ую ending?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Since рубашку is feminine and in the accusative case, the adjective "white" (which is белая in its basic feminine form) must also change to its feminine accusative form: белую.
Is надевает an ongoing action or a completed one?
Надевает is an imperfective verb, which means it describes an ongoing or repeated action. In this sentence, it means he is in the process of putting the shirt on right now, or he regularly puts it on. If you wanted to say he will put it on as a completed, one-time action in the future, you would use the perfective verb: наденет.
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