Learn Hardcore Russian: С другой стороны улицы стоит старый дом. - On the other side of the street there is an old house.

С – a preposition, here roughly “from / on (the side of)”
другой – “other”; feminine, genitive singular form agreeing with стороны
стороны – “side”; genitive singular of сторона
улицы – “of the street”; genitive singular of улица
стоит – “stands / is standing”; 3rd person singular, present tense of стоять
старый – “old”; masculine nominative singular, agreeing with дом
дом – “house”; masculine nominative singular

Natural English: “On the other side of the street there is an old house / an old house stands.”

Why is the preposition с used in с другой стороны, and not на другой стороне?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different.

С другой стороны (улицы)
Literally “from the other side (of the street)”. With сторона, с
- genitive is a very common, almost fixed pattern for “on that side / from that side” relative to where you are.
- It often implies a point of view: from where I’m standing, on the other side…
На другой стороне (улицы)
Literally “on the other side (of the street)”. This simply locates something on that side, more geometrically, without necessarily emphasizing your viewpoint.

In everyday speech, с другой стороны улицы and на другой стороне улицы are extremely close in meaning; both are natural. The version with с is very idiomatic and slightly more “vantage‑point flavored.”

What case are стороны and улицы in, and why?

Both are in the genitive singular:

стороны – genitive singular of сторона (“side”)
улицы – genitive singular of улица (“street”)

Why genitive?

The preposition с in the meaning “from (the side of)” governs the genitive:
- с этой стороны – “from this side”
- с другой стороны – “from the other side”
The phrase сторона улицы is a “X of Y” relationship, so улицы also goes into the genitive:
- сторона улицы – “the side of the street”
- книга брата – “the book of (my) brother”

So you get a small genitive chain: > с другой стороны (чего?) улицы
> “from/on the other side of the street”

Why is it другой and not другая or другую?

Because другой must agree with стороны in case, gender, and number.

Noun: сторона – feminine, singular
In this phrase we need: genitive singular → стороны
Feminine genitive singular ending for adjectives like другой is -ой → другой

So:

nominative: другая сторона – “the other side”
genitive: нет другой стороны – “there is no other side”
preposition с
- genitive → с другой стороны

Forms like другая, другую would be:

другая – feminine nominative singular (e.g. другая сторона)
другую – feminine accusative singular (e.g. вижу другую сторону)

Neither fits here, because the grammar demands genitive.

What exactly does стоит mean here? Is it literally “stands”?

Literally, стоит is “(it) stands / is standing” (3rd person singular of стоять).

In Russian, verbs of position are used for where objects are:

На углу *стоит дом.* – “On the corner there is a house” (literally “a house stands”)
На столе *лежит книга.* – “There is a book on the table” (literally “a book lies”)
На стуле *сидит кошка.* – “There is a cat on the chair” (literally “a cat sits”)

In English we often just say “there is / there are,” but in Russian:

стоит suggests something vertical/standing (buildings, trees, people, bottles).
So here стоит старый дом = “there is an old house (standing there).”

It’s not metaphorical; it’s the normal way to describe the location of a house.

Could we replace стоит with есть, or leave it out entirely?

Using есть
- С другой стороны улицы *есть старый дом.*
  This is grammatical, but sounds a bit unnatural stylistically. With specific, concrete objects in a location, Russian normally prefers verbs like стоит, лежит, находится rather than есть.
Leaving the verb out
- С другой стороны улицы старый дом.
  As a plain sentence, this feels incomplete in normal prose.
  With a dash, it becomes acceptable as a kind of identifying statement:
  - С другой стороны улицы — старый дом.
    This sounds like “On the other side of the street, there is an old house,” but with a slightly more “presentation” or “definition” feel, common in narration, description, or stylistic writing.

For everyday neutral speech, стоит is the most natural choice here.

Why is the word order стоит старый дом instead of старый дом стоит?

Both orders are possible; the difference is information focus:

С другой стороны улицы стоит старый дом.
- This is close to English “On the other side of the street there is an old house.”
- The structure [place] + стоит + [new thing] is a very common pattern for introducing a new object into the conversation.
С другой стороны улицы старый дом стоит.
- Also grammatically correct, but sounds a bit more marked or poetic.
- The focus subtly shifts more onto the fact that the old house (and not something else) stands there.

If you put старый дом right after стоит, you get a very natural, neutral sentence structure: place → verb of position → thing.

Could we instead say Старый дом стоит на другой стороне улицы? How would that sound?

Yes, that’s a perfectly good sentence:

Старый дом стоит на другой стороне улицы.

The differences in feel:

Word order
- Original: С другой стороны улицы стоит старый дом.
  → Starts with the location, then introduces an old house.
- Alternative: Старый дом стоит на другой стороне улицы.
  → Starts with the old house, then tells you where it is.
Pragmatics (what is “given” vs “new”)
- Original: typical when the main point is “there happens to be some old house there.”
- Alternative: typical when you are already talking about that old house, and now you clarify its location.

So:

If you’re introducing the house: original sentence is more natural.
If the house is already known: Старый дом стоит на другой стороне улицы sounds slightly more expected.

Does с другой стороны here also mean “on the other hand,” like in English?

The phrase с другой стороны can mean “on the other hand” in Russian:

С одной стороны, это удобно, а с другой стороны, это дорого.
“On the one hand this is convenient, but on the other hand it’s expensive.”

In your sentence, though, it is clearly literal:

С другой стороны улицы – of what? – улицы (“of the street”)

The presence of улицы shows we are literally talking about the physical side of the street, not an abstract “other side” of an argument.

So:

With a noun like улицы: “from/on the other side of the street.”
On its own in a contrast: с другой стороны = “on the other hand.”

How does agreement work between старый дом and другой стороны? Why different forms?

Agreement depends on the noun each adjective belongs to:

старый дом
- дом – masculine, nominative singular
- adjective must match that: masculine, nominative singular → старый
другой стороны
- сторона – feminine
- in the sentence, it’s genitive singular: стороны
- adjective must be feminine, genitive singular → другой

So:

старый is masculine nominative (agreeing with дом).
другой is feminine genitive (agreeing with стороны).

Same dictionary word другой, but different forms because they agree with different nouns in different cases and genders.

Is there any difference between старый дом and дом старый in Russian?

Yes, there’s a nuance:

старый дом
Neutral, standard order: adjective before noun. Just “an old house.”
дом старый
This word order is more marked:
- often used when дом is already known, and you are commenting on its quality:
  - Дом старый, но крепкий. – “The house is old but sturdy.”
- can sound more contrastive or descriptive, like: “the house (as for the house) is old.”

In your sentence, you’re just introducing “an old house” as a new object, so старый дом (adjective + noun) is the most natural choice.

Are there other common phrases similar to с другой стороны улицы that follow the same pattern?

Yes, very many. A few useful ones:

с этой стороны дома – “on/from this side of the house”
с той стороны дороги – “on/from that side of the road”
с правой стороны улицы – “on the right side of the street”
с левой стороны здания – “on the left side of the building”
с противоположной стороны улицы – “on the opposite side of the street”

They all have the pattern:

с + [adjective in genitive] + стороны + [something in genitive]

Exactly like с другой стороны улицы.