Багаж лежит на ленте.

Лежит is the 3rd person singular present of лежать, which literally means “to lie” (to be in a lying / horizontal position).

Russian often uses different verbs for how something is positioned:

• лежать – to lie (horizontally, on a surface)
  
  • Книга лежит на столе. – The book is lying on the table.
• стоять – to stand (vertically, upright)
  
  • Стул стоит у окна. – The chair is standing by the window.
• сидеть – to sit / be sitting
  
  • Кошка сидит на стуле. – The cat is sitting on the chair.

Suitcases and bags on a conveyor belt are understood as lying flat on the surface, so Russian uses лежит.

You can say Багаж находится на ленте, but the nuance is different:

• Багаж лежит на ленте.
  
  • Very natural and concrete.
  • Focuses on physical position: luggage is lying on the belt.
• Багаж находится на ленте.
  
  • More neutral, a bit more formal/technical.
  • Means “the luggage is located on the belt,” without specifying how it is positioned.

In everyday spoken Russian at an airport, лежит sounds more natural.

You would almost never say багаж стоит на ленте here, because luggage is not “standing” upright in this context.

In Russian, багаж is usually a collective / mass noun. It refers to all of someone’s luggage as one whole, like “baggage” or “luggage” in English.

• Мой багаж лежит на ленте.
  – My luggage is on the belt. (could be several bags)

There is a plural form багажи, but it’s rare and sounds quite formal or technical. It’s used when talking about several separate sets of luggage, for example:

• Багажи пассажиров проверили.
  – The passengers’ pieces of luggage were checked.

In the airport context, talking about your own luggage, singular багаж is normal.

The preposition на can take either:

• Prepositional case – when something is on something (location, no movement)
• Accusative case – when something is moving onto something (direction, motion)

Compare:

• Багаж лежит на ленте.
  – The luggage is (lying) on the belt.
  (на

  • prepositional: ленте) – location, no movement.

• Кладут багаж на ленту.
  – They are putting the luggage onto the belt.
  (на

  • accusative: ленту) – motion toward the belt.

So на ленте answers “Where?”
на ленту answers “Onto where?”

Лента literally means “strip / ribbon / tape” and has several uses:

• A conveyor belt – as in this sentence
  
  • Багаж лежит на ленте. – The luggage is on the (conveyor) belt.
• A ribbon (for hair, gifts, etc.)
  
  • красная лента – a red ribbon
• A tape or film
  
  • магнитная лента – magnetic tape
  • кино́лента – film strip

In an airport context, лента almost always means the baggage conveyor belt.

Багаж is masculine, inanimate.

Key forms (singular):

• Nominative: багаж – Багаж лежит на ленте.
• Genitive: багажа – У меня нет багажа. (I have no luggage.)
• Dative: багажу – Я подойду к багажу.
• Accusative: багаж – same as nominative for inanimate
• Instrumental: багажом – Я путешествую с багажом.
• Prepositional: багаже – Мы говорили о багаже.

Masculine gender is typical for nouns ending in a hard consonant like -ж.

Yes, you can say:

• Багаж лежит на ленте.
• На ленте лежит багаж.

The basic meaning is the same: “The luggage is on the belt.”

The difference is nuance/emphasis:

• Багаж лежит на ленте.
  – Neutral order, topic is багаж (what’s happening with the luggage).

• На ленте лежит багаж.
  – Slight emphasis on на ленте (on the belt): you’re specifying what is on the belt, maybe answering the question “What is on the belt?” or contrasting with some other place.

Both are correct and natural.

Yes, in colloquial speech Russians often drop the present tense form of быть (есть) and sometimes even other verbs of position when the meaning is clear from context.

So you might hear:

• Багаж на ленте.
  – (The) luggage is on the belt.

This is understood as Багаж лежит на ленте or Багаж сейчас на ленте. It’s shorter and sounds casual and spoken.

In careful or textbook-style Russian, Багаж лежит на ленте is the fully explicit version.

Syllables with stressed vowels are in bold:

• Ба-гаж ле-жит на ле́н-те

Details:

• багаж – [ba-GÁZH]
  
  • stress on the second syllable
  • ж = like s in “measure” ([ʒ])
• лежит – [le-ZHÉET]
  
  • stress on the second syllable (-жит)
  • final т is clearly pronounced
• на – [na]
• ленте – [LYÉN-tye]
  
  • stress on ле́н
  • е after л is like “ye” in “yes”
  • т
    • е → soft т’ sound (т is palatalized)

Spoken smoothly, it sounds roughly like:
ba-GÁZH le-ZHÉET na LYÉN-tye.