Breakdown of Ich lege den Stapel auf den Schreibtisch.
ich
I
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
legen
to lay / to put (flat)
der Schreibtisch
the desk
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Stapel
the pile
Questions & Answers about Ich lege den Stapel auf den Schreibtisch.
How would I use the grammar from this lesson (the Gerundivum) to say 'the pile to be placed on the desk'?
You would turn the verb legen into its present participle (legend), add zu in front of it, and decline it like an adjective. Any directional phrases go before it: der auf den Schreibtisch zu legende Stapel. This construction acts as a passive obligation, meaning the pile must or is to be placed there.
Why is it auf den Schreibtisch (accusative) and not auf dem Schreibtisch (dative)?
The preposition auf is a two-way preposition. Because the verb legen (to put/lay) describes an active change of location towards a destination, you must use the accusative case (den). If the pile were already resting there, you would use the dative: Der Stapel liegt auf dem Schreibtisch.
I still sometimes mix up legen and liegen. How do I keep them straight here?
Remember that legen is transitive: you physically do it to a direct object (den Stapel), and it forces two-way prepositions into the accusative. Liegen is intransitive: the subject itself is resting, and it takes the dative. A helpful trick: legen requires action (A = Accusative), while liegen is doing diddly-squat (D = Dative).
Does der Stapel apply to any kind of pile?
Stapel implies a somewhat orderly stack, which makes sense for papers or books on a desk. If you are talking about a chaotic, unorganized pile (like a pile of dirt or a messy pile of junk), you would use der Haufen instead.
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