Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке.

Заготовка is a noun meaning something like a blank, a workpiece, or a prepared piece of material that will be processed further.

The exact English translation depends on context:

• in manufacturing: workpiece / blank
• in crafts or woodworking: piece to be worked on
• in cooking, in other contexts: it can even mean prepared ingredients or preserves, but not here

In this sentence, it most likely means a physical object that has been made or cut and is now being dried.

Лежит is the 3rd person singular of лежать, meaning to lie or to be lying.

Russian often chooses different verbs depending on the physical position of an object:

• лежать = to be lying (flat/horizontal)
• стоять = to be standing (vertical)
• висеть = to be hanging

So Заготовка лежит... suggests the object is resting in a lying position on the shelf.

This is very natural in Russian. English often just says is on the shelf, but Russian frequently specifies the position more precisely.

Because after на when it means location (on, at), Russian normally uses the prepositional case.

So:

• полка = shelf (dictionary form, nominative)
• на полке = on the shelf (prepositional)

The adjective must agree with the noun, so:

• сушильная полка = drying shelf
• на сушильной полке = on the drying shelf

Both words change because they are in the prepositional singular feminine form.

It is the prepositional case, singular, feminine.

Breakdown:

• полка → полке
• сушильная → сушильной

Why prepositional? Because на can take different cases depending on meaning:

• на + prepositional = location
  на полке = on the shelf
• на + accusative = motion toward a place
  на полку = onto the shelf

So:

• Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке. = The workpiece is lying on the drying shelf.
• Положите заготовку на сушильную полку. = Put the workpiece onto the drying shelf.

Сушильной comes from сушить (to dry) and means something like for drying or drying-related.

So сушильная полка is:

• a drying shelf
• a shelf used for drying things

This is a common pattern in Russian: a verb can form an adjective describing the function of something.

For example:

• стиральная машина = washing machine
• посудомоечная машина = dishwasher
• сушильная полка = drying shelf

So сушильная describes the purpose of the shelf, not that the shelf itself is dry.

Usually на here is best translated as on.

So на сушильной полке literally means on the drying shelf.

That said, English sometimes uses on or in differently depending on the object:

• on a shelf
• in a rack
• on a drying rack

If the thing is more like a rack than a single shelf, English might naturally say on the drying rack. But in Russian, полка specifically means shelf, so on the shelf is the most direct translation.

Russian has no articles like English a/an or the.

So Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке could mean:

• A workpiece is lying on the drying shelf
• The workpiece is lying on the drying shelf

Which one is correct depends on context.

Russian usually shows definiteness through:

• context
• word order
• intonation
• what has already been mentioned

So learners should not try to find a hidden word for the or a in this sentence—there isn’t one.

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, although the neutral order here is very natural:

• Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке.

Other orders are possible, for example:

• На сушильной полке лежит заготовка.
• Лежит заготовка на сушильной полке.

These alternatives may shift the emphasis:

• Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке. = neutral statement
• На сушильной полке лежит заготовка. = emphasizes the location
• other orders can sound more literary, contrastive, or context-dependent

So the original sentence is probably the safest version for a learner to imitate.

A helpful stress guide is:

• загото́вка
• лежи́т
• на
• суши́льной
• по́лке

So the full sentence is pronounced approximately:

заготОвка лежИт на сушИльной пОлке

A rough English-style approximation would be:

za-ga-TOV-ka lye-ZHEET na su-SHEEL-noy POL-ke

A few pronunciation notes:

• г is a hard g sound
• ж sounds like the s in measure
• unstressed о is reduced and may sound closer to a
• льн in сушильной is a soft consonant cluster and may take practice

Yes, but it changes the feel of the sentence.

• Заготовка лежит на сушильной полке.
  = The workpiece is lying on the drying shelf.
  This sounds more concrete and physical.

• Заготовка находится на сушильной полке.
  = The workpiece is located on the drying shelf.
  This is more neutral, formal, or less focused on position.

Russian often prefers лежит, стоит, or висит when the physical orientation matters or is obvious.
So in everyday usage, лежит is often more natural than находится here.

Yes, лежит is present tense.

It can mean:

• the object is lying there right now
• the object lies/is kept there in the current situation

Russian present tense can cover both an action/state happening now and a general current state, depending on context.

So this sentence does not have to mean someone is actively watching it at this exact second. It can simply describe where the object is.