Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

My broken phone is lying on the table.

Breakdown of Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

• мой: my
• телефон: the phone
• стол: the table
• на: on
• лежать: to lie
• сломанный: broken

Questions & Answers about Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

Why is it мой телефон and not мне телефон or моя телефон?

• Мой is a possessive pronoun meaning my.
• It must agree with the noun телефон in gender, number, and case.

Телефон is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative (subject of the sentence)

So we choose:

• мой (masculine, singular, nominative), not моя (feminine) or моё (neuter).

Мне is a completely different form:

• мне = to me / for me (dative case of я)
• You use мне in sentences like Мне холодно (“I’m cold”, literally “It’s cold to me”) or Мне нужен телефон (“I need a phone”).

So мой телефон = my phone, while мне телефон on its own is ungrammatical here.

What exactly is сломанный grammatically, and how is it formed?

Сломанный is a past passive participle used like an adjective, from the verb сломать (“to break” in the sense of “to break something completely / to break once”).

Formation (for many verbs like this):

• infinitive: сломать
• take the past passive participle stem: сломан-
• add the long-form adjective ending for masculine nominative singular: -ный
• → сломанный

It behaves like a normal adjective:

• masculine, singular, nominative here to agree with телефон
• can change form: сломанная ваза, сломанное окно, сломанные часы, etc.

Meaning: a broken phone (a phone that somebody/something has broken).

What’s the difference between сломанный телефон and телефон сломан?

Both can mean “the phone is broken”, but they’re used differently:

• сломанный телефон

  • сломанный is an attributive adjective/participle modifying the noun.
  • More like “broken phone” as a description of the type/state of the phone.
  • Used directly before the noun: сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

• телефон сломан

  • сломан is a short-form passive participle used predicatively (as the main predicate or part of it).
  • Structure: телефон (есть) сломан ≈ “the phone is broken.”
  • You could say: Телефон сломан и лежит на столе.

In your sentence, сломанный is part of the noun phrase мой сломанный телефон (my broken phone), not a separate predicate.

Why is the verb лежит used here and not есть, находится, or nothing at all?

Russian usually does not use an equivalent of “is” (есть) in simple present statements like “The phone is on the table.” Instead, it often uses:

• a verb of position like лежать (to lie), стоять (to stand), сидеть (to sit), or
• находиться (to be located), or
• no verb at all when using just “X – Y” structure (e.g. Мой телефон на столе).

In this sentence:

• лежит is the 3rd person singular of лежать = “lies / is lying”.
• Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе literally: “My broken phone lies on the table.”

Why лежит specifically?

• You use лежать for objects that are in a lying / horizontal position on a surface (like a phone, book, or paper on a table).
• стоять would be used for something upright (like a bottle, glass, or lamp) – Бутылка стоит на столе.

Why is it лежит and not лежат?

The verb has to agree with its subject in number (singular/plural).

• Subject: телефон – singular
• Verb: лежит – 3rd person, singular

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

• Мои сломанные телефоны лежат на столе.
  
  • телефоны – plural
  • verb → лежат (3rd person plural)

What case is столе and why is it used here?

Столе is in the prepositional case (предложный падеж).

You use the prepositional case:

• after some prepositions, especially в (in) and на (on)
• when indicating location (where something is).

Pattern:

• Preposition на
  • prepositional case = “on (a stationary surface)”
• Question: на чём? – on what?
• Answer: на столе (on the table).

So:

• nominative: стол (table)
• prepositional: на столе (on the table, location, no movement).

Why на столе and not на стол?

The difference is location vs movement:

• на столе – on the table (where something is)

  • Preposition на
    • prepositional case
  • Answers “Where?” (где?)
  • Телефон лежит на столе. – The phone is lying on the table.

• на стол – (onto) the table (motion towards the table)

  • Preposition на
    • accusative case
  • Answers “Where to?” (куда?)
  • Я кладу телефон на стол. – I’m putting the phone on the table.

In your sentence, we talk about where the phone already is, so we need на столе.

Can I say Мой сломанный телефон на столе without лежит?

Yes, you can.

Мой сломанный телефон на столе. is a perfectly normal sentence in Russian.
Literal structure: my broken phone – on the table.

• Russian often omits the verb “to be” in the present tense.
• The verb лежит just adds a nuance of lying (position), while Мой сломанный телефон на столе is a bit more neutral: simply “My broken phone is on the table.”

Both are correct; лежит gives you extra detail about how it is on the table.

Can I change the word order to На столе лежит мой сломанный телефон? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, this word order is very natural:

• На столе лежит мой сломанный телефон.

The basic meaning is the same, but the emphasis changes slightly:

• Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

  • Emphasis more on what we’re talking about: my broken phone.
  • Then we add new information: it lies on the table.

• На столе лежит мой сломанный телефон.

  • Emphasis starts with the location: “On the table, there lies my broken phone.”
  • Common when we’re focusing on what’s on the table or contrasting with other places.

Russian word order is relatively flexible, and this type of rearrangement is very common.

How would this sentence change if the noun were feminine or neuter?

The possessive мой and the participle сломанный must agree with the gender of the noun.

Examples:

• Feminine: книга (book)

  • Моя сломанная книга лежит на столе.
    
    • моя – feminine
    • сломанная – feminine
    • книга – feminine

• Neuter: радио (radio)

  • Моё сломанное радио лежит на столе.
    
    • моё – neuter
    • сломанное – neuter
    • радио – neuter

• Plural: наушники (headphones)

  • Мои сломанные наушники лежат на столе.
    
    • мои – plural
    • сломанные – plural
    • наушники – plural
    • verb changes too: лежат (plural).

Is there any difference between сломанный телефон and поломанный телефон?

Both can mean “broken phone”, but there is a nuance:

• сломанный – the most common, neutral way to say broken (physically broken, not working).
• поломанный – also “broken”, but sometimes sounds:
  • slightly more colloquial or emotional,
  • a bit like “messed up / all broken”.

In many everyday situations you can use either:

• Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.
• Мой поломанный телефон лежит на столе.

Сломанный is the default choice in neutral or written language.

What is the stress pattern and approximate pronunciation of each word?

Stressed syllables are in caps; transcription is approximate for English speakers.

• Мой – MOY (like “moy” in “Moynihan”; /moj/)
• сломанный – SLO-ма-ный (/ˈslo.mə.nɨj/)
• телефон – те-ли-ФОН (/tʲɪ.lʲɪˈfon/)
• лежит – ле-ЖИТ (/lʲɪˈʐit/)
• на – NA (/na/)
• столе – ста-ЛЕ (/stɐˈlʲe/)

Whole sentence:
МОЙ SLO-ма-ный тʲɪ-лʲɪ-ФОН лʲɪ-ЖИТ на ста-ЛЕ.

Which aspect is used for сломанный, and what’s the verb pair behind it?

Сломанный in this form is connected with the perfective verb сломать:

• imperfective: ломать – to break (habitually, repeatedly, process)
• perfective: сломать – to break (once, to complete the breaking)
• past passive participle (long form): сломанный – broken (as a result of someone having broken it)

So сломанный телефон implies the phone is in the resulting state of having been broken (the action is complete).

Could I say телефон находится на столе instead? How is that different from лежит на столе?

Yes, you can say:

• Мой сломанный телефон находится на столе.

Differences:

• лежит на столе

  • More concrete, describes how the phone is positioned (lying).
  • Very natural and common for small objects on surfaces.

• находится на столе

  • More neutral/formal: “is located on the table”.
  • Slightly more abstract; often used in written language, instructions, descriptions (e.g. “The button is located at the top of the screen.”).

In everyday speech about a literal phone on a real table, лежит на столе usually sounds more natural, but находится is still correct.

Why is there no word for “is” in Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе?

Russian generally drops the present-tense form of “to be” (есть) in simple statements:

• English: My phone is on the table.
• Neutral Russian: Мой телефон на столе. (no есть)

In your sentence, the function of “is” is partly covered by the verb лежит (“lies / is lying”). If you tried to insert есть, it would sound unnatural:

• ✗ Мой сломанный телефон есть лежит на столе. – incorrect.
• ✓ Мой сломанный телефон лежит на столе.

So:

• “Is” is usually implied, not spoken, in the present tense.
• You only see forms of быть more clearly in the past/future or special constructions (e.g. был, будет).