Breakdown of Мой принтер стоит рядом с компьютером.
мой
my
с
with
стоять
to stand
рядом
next to
компьютер
the computer
принтер
the printer
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Questions & Answers about Мой принтер стоит рядом с компьютером.
Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before принтер?
Russian doesn’t have articles (“a,” “the”). Definiteness and indefiniteness are understood from context, so you simply say принтер for “a printer” or “the printer.”
Why is it мой принтер and not моя принтер or моё принтер?
Possessive pronouns in Russian must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify. Принтер is masculine, so you use мой (masculine nominative), not моя (feminine) or моё (neuter).
Why is принтер in the nominative case?
Принтер is the subject of the sentence (it “does” the standing), and the subject in Russian takes the nominative case by default.
What does стоит mean here, and why use this verb instead of “is” (есть)?
Стоит is the 3rd-person singular of стоять, meaning “to stand” or “to be positioned upright.” Russian prefers specific verbs of location (стоять, лежать, висеть) over the generic “to be” (быть/есть) when describing where things are.
Why is the phrase рядом с компьютером used for “next to the computer,” and can we omit с?
Рядом is an adverb meaning “near/by,” but when you specify “next to what,” you need the preposition с plus the instrumental case. Omitting с would be ungrammatical in standard Russian.
What case is компьютером in, and why?
Компьютером is in the instrumental case. After the preposition с (“with”/“next to” here), the noun takes the instrumental, so компьютер → компьютером.
Could I express the same idea using у instead of рядом с?
Yes. You can say Мой принтер стоит у компьютера, where у (“at”/“by”) takes the genitive case (компьютера) to indicate proximity.
Is the word order fixed, or can I start the sentence with Рядом с компьютером?
Word order in Russian is quite flexible. You can say Рядом с компьютером стоит мой принтер to emphasize the location first; it still means “My printer is next to the computer.”
Can I replace стоит with находится to say “My printer is located next to the computer”?
Absolutely. Мой принтер находится рядом с компьютером uses the verb находиться (“to be located”) for a more neutral or formal style.