Learn Hardcore Russian: Рядом с большим столом стоял красный стул. - Next to the large table, there was a red chair.

In Russian, when a preposition like с is used to indicate spatial proximity—as in “рядом с…” meaning “next to”—the following noun must be in the instrumental case. Thus, “стол” becomes “столом” and its modifying adjective “большой” becomes “большим” to agree in case, number, and gender.

Why does “красный стул” remain in the nominative case while “с большим столом” is in the instrumental?

The phrase “красный стул” is the subject of the sentence and therefore stays in the nominative case. On the other hand, “с большим столом” functions as an adverbial phrase that specifies location and, because it is governed by the preposition с in the “рядом с…” construction, it must be in the instrumental case.

What information does the form “стоял” provide about the subject?

The verb form “стоял” is the masculine singular past tense of стоять (“to stand”). This tells us that the subject, “красный стул”, is masculine and singular. In Russian, past tense verbs agree with the gender (and number) of the subject, so “стоял” confirms that the chair (стул) is a masculine noun.

Why is the prepositional phrase “Рядом с большим столом” placed at the beginning of the sentence?

Russian word order is flexible compared to English. By placing “Рядом с большим столом” at the beginning, the speaker emphasizes the location or setting. This inversion—starting with an adverbial phrase rather than the subject—is a common stylistic choice in Russian and does not affect the grammatical relationships between words.

How do adjective endings change depending on the grammatical case used in this sentence?

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case. In the instrumental phrase “с большим столом,” the adjective “большой” takes the ending -ым to become “большим” because it modifies “столом” (a masculine singular noun in the instrumental case). Meanwhile, the adjective “красный” remains in its nominative form because it directly describes the subject “стул,” which is also in the nominative case.