Learn Hardcore Russian: В тёмной комнате стоит старый стол.

Because with the preposition в, Russian uses the prepositional case to show location (“where” something is). If you wanted to express motion into the room, you’d use the accusative: в комнату. Here we mean “in the room,” so комната (feminine) becomes комнате, and its adjective тёмный becomes тёмной in the same case.

Why is тёмной spelled with ё, and how is it pronounced?

The adjective тёмный (dark) always uses ё to signal the sound /jo/. In writing you might sometimes see е instead of ё, but formally it’s тёмный. The stress is on the first syllable: [ˈtʲom.nɨj], so тёмной is [tʲɵmˈnoj].

Why does старый end in -ый, and how do adjectives agree with nouns?

Adjectives in Russian must match the noun’s gender, number, and case. Here стол is masculine, singular, nominative (because it’s the subject), so the adjective takes the masculine nominative ending -ый. If the noun were feminine, you’d see -ая (e.g. тёмная комната).

How do you know стоит is the present tense of стоять (to stand)?

стоит is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb стоять (“to stand”). The full conjugation is я стою, ты стоишь, он/она стоит, мы стоим, вы стоите, они стоят. Since стол (“table”) is 3rd person singular, стоит means “it stands.”

Could стоит ever mean “costs” in Russian?

Yes. There’s another verb стоить meaning “to cost,” and its 3rd person singular present is also стоит. Context tells you which one: with price you’d ask “Сколько это стоит?” (“How much does this cost?”). Here, because we talk about a table’s position, it’s from стоять.

Why isn’t there a verb for “is,” like есть, in this sentence?

In Russian, when you use a full verb like стоит (to stand), you don’t insert the copula есть. You only use есть (there is/are) if you want a purely existential sentence: В тёмной комнате есть старый стол (“There is an old table in the dark room”). But with стоит you already have the action/position built in.

How do you know it’s “an old table” and not “the old table,” since Russian has no articles?

Russian doesn’t use definite or indefinite articles. старый стол could be “a table” or “the table” depending on context. To make it explicit, you’d add demonstratives: какой-то старый стол (some old table), этот старый стол (this old table), тот старый стол (that old table).

How does the word order here affect the emphasis?

Russian word order is flexible. Starting with В тёмной комнате foregrounds the location. If you said Старый стол стоит в тёмной комнате, you’d be focusing on the table first. You can even say Стоит старый стол в тёмной комнате to give a poetic or suspenseful feel.

Could you replace стоит with находится? What’s the difference?

Yes: В тёмной комнате находится старый стол (“An old table is located in the dark room”). находится is a neutral “is located” and doesn’t tell you anything about the table’s posture. стоит specifically implies the table is upright.

Where is the stress in стоит, and how is it pronounced?

The stress is on the second syllable: [stəˈit]. So you say стоИт, not стОит.