Mijn pantoffel ligt naast het bed.

Pantoffel is singular here, so it means slipper or house slipper in the singular.

• mijn pantoffel = my slipper
• mijn pantoffels = my slippers

Dutch often uses the singular if only one item is being talked about.

Pantoffel usually means a slipper: the soft shoe you wear indoors.

A few useful related words:

• de pantoffel = the slipper
• de pantoffels = the slippers
• de schoen = the shoe
• de schoenen = the shoes

So Mijn pantoffel ligt naast het bed is talking about one slipper.

Dutch often uses a specific position verb where English might simply use is.

Here:

• liggen = to lie / to be lying
• staan = to stand
• zitten = to sit / to be located in a certain way

Because a slipper is seen as something resting horizontally on a surface, Dutch uses liggen:

• Mijn pantoffel ligt naast het bed.

In natural English, you usually just say My slipper is next to the bed, but Dutch prefers the more specific verb.

Ligt is the third-person singular form of the verb liggen.

The subject is mijn pantoffel, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular.

Present tense of liggen:

• ik lig
• jij ligt
• hij/zij/het ligt
• wij liggen
• jullie liggen
• zij liggen

So:

• Mijn pantoffel ligt = singular subject
• Mijn pantoffels liggen = plural subject

In Dutch, every noun has a grammatical article: either de or het.

Bed is a het-word, so you say:

• het bed = the bed

You simply have to learn this with the noun.

Useful forms:

• het bed
• een bed
• het grote bed

A common learner tip is to memorize nouns together with their article, so learn het bed, not just bed.

This is a normal Dutch main clause word order:

1. Subject: Mijn pantoffel
2. Verb: ligt
3. The rest of the sentence: naast het bed

Dutch main clauses usually put the conjugated verb in the second position:

• Mijn pantoffel | ligt | naast het bed

This is often called the V2 rule (verb second).

Naast means next to or beside.

Examples:

• naast het bed = next to the bed
• naast de deur = next to the door
• naast mij = next to me

It is a preposition, so it introduces a location.

In the sentence:

• Mijn pantoffel ligt naast het bed
• literally: My slipper lies next to the bed

Because bed is a specific noun phrase here: the bed.

Dutch, like English, usually needs an article with a singular countable noun when you mean a specific thing.

So:

• naast het bed = next to the bed
• naast een bed = next to a bed

You would not normally say just naast bed in standard Dutch.

It may be understood, but it sounds less natural than ligt.

Dutch strongly prefers position verbs in many location sentences. For objects like a slipper, liggen is the normal choice.

So the most natural version is:

• Mijn pantoffel ligt naast het bed.

Using is is more English-like and usually not the best choice here.

No. It must be naast het bed because bed is a het-word.

Compare:

• naast het bed = correct
• naast de tafel = correct, because tafel is a de-word
• naast de bed = incorrect

Usually mijn stays mijn before a noun, whether the noun is a de-word or a het-word.

Examples:

• mijn pantoffel
• mijn bed
• mijn schoenen

So in this sentence, mijn is simply the possessive determiner meaning my.

Then both the noun and the verb would change:

• Mijn pantoffels liggen naast het bed.
• My slippers are next to the bed.

Changes:

• pantoffel → pantoffels
• ligt → liggen

That is because the subject becomes plural.

It is a de-word, so in modern Dutch you use de pantoffel.

For most learners, the important thing is to know the article:

• de pantoffel
• het bed

Whether a de-word is historically masculine or feminine is usually less important at beginner level unless you are studying pronouns or formal grammar in more detail.