Word
Не стоит оставлять телефон на столе, когда идёшь в парк.
Meaning
It’s not worth leaving the phone on the table when you go to the park.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Не стоит оставлять телефон на столе, когда идёшь в парк.
в
to
парк
the park
телефон
the phone
на
on
Questions & Answers about Не стоит оставлять телефон на столе, когда идёшь в парк.
What does не стоит + infinitive mean grammatically, and who is the “subject”?
Не стоит is an impersonal construction (no real grammatical subject). It literally means something like “it’s not worth (doing)” or “one shouldn’t (do)”.
So Не стоит оставлять… = “It’s not worth leaving…” / “You shouldn’t leave…”.
The “doer” is understood from context (often you/people in general) rather than stated.
Why is оставлять in the infinitive, and what aspect is it?
After не стоит, Russian typically uses an infinitive to name the action being advised against.
Оставлять is imperfective (process/repeated/general). It suggests a general rule/habit: don’t (ever) leave your phone…
The perfective partner would be оставить (a single, completed act): Не стоит оставить телефон… is less natural; Russians would usually still prefer Не стоит оставлять… for general advice.
Could I also say Не стоит оставлять телефон на стол instead of на столе?