В нашем университете столовая находится напротив спортплощадки.

In our university the cafeteria is located opposite the sports ground.

Breakdown of В нашем университете столовая находится напротив спортплощадки.

• находиться: to be located
• в: at
• наш: our
• университет: the university
• напротив: opposite
• спортплощадка: the sports ground
• столовая: the cafeteria

Questions & Answers about В нашем университете столовая находится напротив спортплощадки.

What case is в нашем университете, and why is that case used here?

В нашем университете is in the prepositional case.

• университет → в университете
• наш → нашем (the adjective changes to match the noun)

In Russian, when you talk about being in a place (not motion into it), you normally use:

• в + prepositional case
  
  • в университете – in the university
  • в магазине – in the shop

Here we are saying where the cafeteria is (its location), so prepositional is required.

Why is it нашем университете and not наш университет?

Because of the preposition в and the meaning.

• Without в, you would say: наш университет (nominative) – our university.
• With в, to say in our university, you must use the prepositional:
  
  • в нашем университете

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun in:

• gender (университет = masculine)
• number (singular)
• case (prepositional)

So наш changes to нашем to match университете in the prepositional case.

Why is it в университете and not на университете?

In Russian, choice between в and на with places is mostly fixed by usage:

• в is typical for buildings, institutions, enclosed places:
  • в университете – in/at the university
  • в школе – at school
  • в доме – in the house
• на is used with some institutions by tradition, and with surfaces or open areas:
  • на работе – at work
  • на улице – in the street / outside
  • на стадионе – at the stadium

For университет, the standard is в университете, not на университете.
На университете would literally sound like “on top of the university building” (on its roof or surface).

What exactly does столовая mean? Is it just “cafeteria”?

Столовая is a feminine noun that comes from стол (table). It usually means:

• a cafeteria, canteen, or dining hall in an institution:
  • school cafeteria
  • university cafeteria
  • factory canteen, etc.

It’s not a general word for “restaurant”. A столовая usually:

• has simple, relatively cheap food
• is often self-service
• is connected with some institution (school, workplace, university)

So here столовая is best translated as cafeteria or canteen.

Why do we use находится instead of just saying столовая напротив спортплощадки?

Both are possible:

• В нашем университете столовая находится напротив спортплощадки.
• В нашем университете столовая напротив спортплощадки.

Using находится:

• makes the sentence feel a bit more complete and neutral
• explicitly says “is located” / “is situated”

Without находится, the present tense is simply implied (Russian often omits “to be” in the present).
So:

• столовая находится напротив… – the cafeteria is located opposite… (more explicit)
• столовая напротив… – the cafeteria is opposite… (a bit shorter, more colloquial-sounding, but still correct)

What does the -ся in находится mean? Is it reflexive?

Yes, находится is the 3rd person singular of the reflexive verb находиться.

• Base verb: находить – to find (someone/something)
• Reflexive form: находиться – literally “to find oneself”, but in practice:
  
  • to be located, to be situated

The -ся ending often marks reflexive verbs, but very often (like here) it just changes the meaning, not actual “doing something to oneself”.

So столовая находится means the cafeteria is located / is situated.

Why is напротив followed by спортплощадки and not the basic form спортплощадка?

Because напротив requires the genitive case.

• Base form (nominative): спортплощадка (sports ground, sports court/field)
• Genitive singular: спортплощадки

The rule:

• напротив + genitive
  • напротив дома – opposite the house
  • напротив школы – opposite the school
  • напротив спортплощадки – opposite the sports ground

So спортплощадки here is genitive singular, required by напротив.

What is спортплощадка exactly, and is it different from спортивная площадка?

Спортплощадка is a shortened, colloquial form of спортивная площадка.

• спортивная площадка – literally “sports ground / sports court / playing field”
• спортплощадка – the same thing, more informal and compact

Typical meaning: an outdoor or indoor sports area, with basketball hoops, football goals, exercise bars, etc., usually in a school or university.

So in this sentence:

• напротив спортплощадки = opposite the sports ground or opposite the sports court

Can I change the word order, for example to Столовая в нашем университете находится напротив спортплощадки? Does it change the meaning?

You can change the word order; the core meaning stays the same, but the focus shifts slightly.

Possible variants:

1. В нашем университете столовая находится напротив спортплощадки.
   – Neutral; sets the scene (in our university), then tells where the cafeteria is.

2. Столовая в нашем университете находится напротив спортплощадки.
   – Slightly more focus on столовая (“As for the cafeteria in our university, it is opposite the sports ground”).

3. Столовая находится напротив спортплощадки в нашем университете.
   – Can sound a bit ambiguous: is the sports ground in our university or the cafeteria? Context usually clarifies.

Russian word order is relatively flexible; meaning is mostly marked by cases, while order is used for emphasis and information structure. All the above are grammatically possible; your original version is very natural.

Why is the verb находится the same form for a feminine noun like столовая? Shouldn’t it change?

In the present tense, Russian verbs do not change for gender, only for person and number. So:

• он находится
• она находится
• оно находится

All use находится.

Gender affects verbs only in the past tense and sometimes the short-form participles/adjectives, e.g.:

• столовая находилась напротив спортплощадки – the cafeteria was located opposite the sports ground (feminine past, -лась)
• университет находился… – the university was located… (masculine past, -лся)

Why don’t we use the verb есть (the explicit “to be”) in this sentence?

In present tense Russian, the verb “to be” (быть, form есть) is normally omitted in equational sentences:

• Он студент. – He is a student. (no есть)
• Кафе напротив банка. – The café is opposite the bank.

Есть is only used in the present:

• to emphasize existence:
  
  • У нас есть столовая. – We have a cafeteria.
• in some special constructions.

In your sentence, we are describing location, not existence. So we either:

• omit “to be” entirely: Столовая напротив спортплощадки.
• or use a specific verb of location: находится.

We do not say: Столовая есть напротив спортплощадки in standard Russian.

What is the stress and pronunciation of the whole sentence?

Here is the sentence with stressed vowels marked in uppercase:

В нАшем университЕте столОвая нахОдится напрОтив спортплощадкИ.

Rough guide to pronunciation (Latin letters, approximate):

• В нАшем – v NA-shem
• университЕте – u-ni-ver-si-TYE-tye
• столОвая – sta-LO-va-ya
• нахОдится – na-KHO-di-tsa
• напрОтив – na-PRO-tiv
• спортплощадкИ – sport-plosh-CHAD-ki

Main word stress is fixed in each word and doesn’t move in this sentence.

Could напротив also mean “against” in the sense of opposing something, like “against the idea”?

No. That meaning is expressed by a different word: против (without на-).

• напротив
  • genitive → spatial, physical opposition:
    • кафе напротив банка – the café is opposite the bank
• против
  • genitive → ideological or physical opposition:
    • Я против этой идеи. – I am against this idea.
    • играть против другой команды – to play against another team

In your sentence, напротив спортплощадки is purely about location in space, not opposition in attitude.