На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.

to stand

Breakdown of На подоконнике стоит зелёное растение.

• на: on
• подоконник: the windowsill
• зелёный: green

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 ?