Questions & Answers about Моя фотография лежит на столе.
What part of speech is моя, and why is it моя here?
моя is the feminine singular form of the possessive pronoun мой. It agrees in gender, number, and case with the noun фотография, which is feminine singular in nominative case.
Which case is фотография in, and what role does it play in the sentence?
фотография is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence—the thing that “lies” on the table.
Why does фотография take feminine agreement, and how do you know it’s feminine?
Most Russian nouns ending in -ия are feminine. You also know it’s feminine because the agreeing words (моя, лежит implicitly takes feminine if it had participles, etc.) match that gender.
What case is used in на столе, and why is it the prepositional case?
столе is in the prepositional case (locative) because we’re indicating location (“where?”). With на meaning “on,” you use the prepositional case for a static location.
When would you use the accusative case instead of the prepositional after на?