Гора находится рядом с озером.

with

Breakdown of Гора находится рядом с озером.

• находиться: to be located
• рядом: near
• озеро: the lake
• гора: the mountain

Questions & Answers about Гора находится рядом с озером.

Why is Гора in the nominative case?

Because Гора is the subject of the sentence. In Russian, the thing you’re talking about (what “is located”) stays in the nominative case when you use находится.

What does находится mean and why is it used here?

Находится is the third-person singular of находиться (“to be located” or “to be found”). It’s the standard verb for stating where something is geographically or spatially.

Why do we say рядом с instead of just рядом?

Рядом alone acts like an adverb (“nearby”). To specify what it’s near, you add с plus the instrumental case. So рядом с озером literally “next to (with) the lake.”

Why is озером in the instrumental case?

After с (here meaning “with” in the sense of proximity) Russian requires the instrumental case. Hence озеро → озером.

Can I change the word order?

Yes. Russian is flexible. All these are correct and mean the same:
• Гора находится рядом с озером.
• Рядом с озером находится гора.
• Рядом с озером гора находится.
You can front the locative phrase (Рядом с озером) for emphasis.

Is there another way to say “near the lake”?

Yes. You can use the preposition возле plus the genitive: возле озера. For example:
• Гора может быть возле озера.
In colloquial speech you might even drop находится and just say Гора возле озера.

Could we use a different verb like лежит or стоит?

You could use стоит for something that “stands” (like a tower or a monument) and лежит for something that “lies” (like a road or a rug). But for mountains, cities, lakes etc., находится is the most neutral and widely used verb to describe location.