На дороге наст и наледь.

There is crusted snow and sheet ice on the road.

Breakdown of На дороге наст и наледь.

• и: and
• дорога: the road
• на: in
• наст: the crusted snow

Questions & Answers about На дороге наст и наледь.

Why is there no verb in На дороге наст и наледь?

Because Russian often omits быть (to be) in the present tense.

So instead of saying something like There is hard-packed snow and ice on the road, Russian can simply say:

На дороге наст и наледь.

Literally, it is closer to:

On the road — snow crust and ice.

This kind of verbless sentence is very normal in Russian, especially in short descriptions, signs, reports, or weather/road-condition statements.

You could also say:

На дороге есть наст и наледь.

But есть is often unnecessary here and may sound slightly heavier or more explicit.

Why is it на дороге, not на дорога?

Because на can require different cases depending on the meaning.

Here it means on the road / on the surface of the road, so it expresses location, and that takes the prepositional case:

• дорога = road
• на дороге = on the road

If на expresses motion onto something, it would usually take the accusative instead:

• на дорогу = onto the road

So:

• На дороге = on the road
• На дорогу = onto the road

What case are наст and наледь in?