Questions & Answers about Мобильный телефон лежит на столе.
Why isn’t there an article (like “the” or “a”) before мобильный телефон?
Russian does not use definite or indefinite articles at all. Nouns stand on their own, and context or word order tells you whether something is specific or general.
What case is столе in, and why?
столе is in the prepositional case. After the preposition на (meaning “on” when indicating location), you use the prepositional case to say “on the table.”
Why is the adjective мобильный placed before the noun телефон? Could it come after?
Standard Russian word order puts adjectives before nouns: мобильный телефон (“mobile phone”). You can reverse it for poetic effect or emphasis—телефон мобильный would sound unusual and might stress that it’s the phone that’s mobile rather than, say, cordless—but it’s not the neutral word order.
What does the verb лежит mean here, and why do we use лежать for an object?
лежит is the 3rd person singular present of лежать, “to lie” (i.e. to be lying down). In Russian, stationary objects that lie flat use лежать. If something stood upright you’d use стоять, and if it were seated or perched you’d use сидеть.