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Questions & Answers about Собака лежит под столом.
What does the sentence Собака лежит под столом mean in English?
It means "The dog is lying under the table." The sentence tells us that a dog is in a lying position beneath a table.
Why is the noun стол written as столом instead of just стол?
In Russian, the preposition под requires the use of the instrumental case when indicating a static location (i.e. where something is situated). For the masculine noun стол (table), the instrumental form is столом.
What case is used for собака and why?
The noun собака (dog) is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence. In Russian, the subject typically appears in the nominative.
What does the verb лежит tell us about the subject, and what is its form?
The verb лежит is the third person singular form of лежать (to lie, as in recline). It indicates that the dog is currently in the state of lying down.
Why are there no articles like "the" or "a" in the sentence?
Russian does not use articles. The nouns собака and столом appear without an article because Russian grammar conveys definiteness and indefiniteness through context rather than with words equivalent to "the" or "a".
Can the word order be changed in this sentence without affecting its meaning?
Yes, Russian has a flexible word order due to its case system. For example, Под столом лежит собака is also correct and simply emphasizes the location first, even though the overall meaning stays the same.