На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.

A green plant is standing on the windowsill.

Breakdown of На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.

• стоять: to stand
• на: on
• подоконник: the windowsill
• зелёный: green
• растение: the plant

Questions & Answers about На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.

Why is it на подоконнике and not на подоконник?

In Russian, на can use two different cases:

• Accusative: when there is movement to a place (direction).
• Prepositional: when something is located at a place (no movement).

In this sentence, the plant is already on the windowsill, so we talk about location, not movement.
That’s why подоконник goes into the prepositional case: на подоконнике = on the windowsill.

If you were putting the plant onto the windowsill (movement), you would say:

• Я ставлю растение на подоконник. – I am putting the plant on the windowsill.

What case is подоконнике, and how is it formed?

Подоконнике is in the prepositional case (locative), used mainly after в and на to indicate where something is.

• Dictionary form (nominative): подоконник (a windowsill), masculine, ending in a consonant.
• Prepositional singular ending for most masculine nouns with a consonant: -е.

So:

• подоконник → в/на подоконнике – on the windowsill / at the windowsill

Why do we use стоит instead of есть or находится?

Russian often uses position verbs (стоять, лежать, сидеть) instead of a simple “to be” when talking about where objects are:

• стоять – to stand / to be (in an upright position)
• лежать – to lie / to be lying
• сидеть – to sit / to be sitting

Стоит here basically means “is (standing)” and is the natural choice for an upright object like a plant in a pot.

Alternatives:

• На подоконнике есть зелёное растение. – also correct, more neutral/existential: There is a green plant on the windowsill.
• На подоконнике находится зелёное растение. – correct but sounds more formal/technical.

What is the subject of the sentence, and why is растение in this form?

The subject is растение (plant). It’s in the nominative case, because the nominative is used for the subject of the sentence.

• Dictionary form: растение – neuter noun, nominative singular.
• In this sentence, it stays in that dictionary form because it is the subject:
  (Что?) растение стоит. – What is standing? The plant is standing.

Why is the verb стоит and not something that looks “neuter” to match растение?

In the present tense, Russian verbs don’t change form for grammatical gender, only for person and number.

Стоять (to stand), present tense:

• он / она / оно стоит – he / she / it stands
• они стоят – they stand

So for any singular subject (he, she, or it), the form is стоит.
Растение is neuter singular (оно), so it correctly takes стоит.

Why is зелёное in the -ое form and not зелёный or зелёная?

Зелёное is an adjective that must agree with the noun it describes in:

• Gender
• Number
• Case

The noun растение is:

• neuter
• singular
• nominative

The standard nominative singular adjective endings are:

• masculine: -ый / -ий → зелёный стол (green table)
• feminine: -ая / -яя → зелёная комната (green room)
• neuter: -ое / -ее → зелёное растение (green plant)

So зелёное matches растение: neuter, singular, nominative.

Why are there no words for “a” or “the” in this Russian sentence?

Russian has no articles (no direct equivalents of “a/an” or “the”).
Whether something is understood as definite or indefinite is usually shown by context, word order, or extra words.

На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение can mean:

• There is a green plant on the windowsill. (indefinite)
• The green plant is standing on the windowsill. (definite)

If you need to make it specific, you might add context or words like:

• это зелёное растение – this/the green plant
• какое-то зелёное растение – some green plant

Can I change the word order, for example: Зелёное растение стоит на подоконнике?

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these can be correct:

1. На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.
   – Neutral; slight focus on the location (“On the windowsill there is a green plant”).

2. Зелёное растение стоит на подоконнике.
   – More neutral from an English perspective; mild focus on what is on the windowsill (“The green plant is on the windowsill”).

3. Стоит на подоконнике зелёное растение.
   – Possible, sounds a bit more stylistic/poetic; often used in descriptions or storytelling.

The basic meaning stays the same; word order mainly changes emphasis and style, not grammar.

How is зелёное pronounced, and what is special about the letter ё?

Зелёное is pronounced approximately: [zi-LYO-no-ye].

About ё:

• It is always stressed in this word: зелёное.
• It is pronounced /yo/, like “yo” in “yoga”.
• In ordinary writing, Russians often replace ё with е, so you may see зеленое instead of зелёное.
  The pronunciation, however, stays [зилЁное].

So even if you see зеленое, you should know from vocabulary or context that it’s pronounced зелёное.

Could I say лежит зелёное растение instead of стоит зелёное растение?

Normally, no. For a plant in a pot on a windowsill, Russians imagine it as standing upright, so they say:

• растение стоит – the plant is standing.

Лежать (to lie) is used for things in a lying/horizontal position:

• Книга лежит на столе. – The book is lying on the table.
• Кошка лежит на диване. – The cat is lying on the sofa.

You would only use лежит растение if, for example, the plant had fallen over and is lying on its side.