В салатнице лежат огурцы, помидоры и зелень.

Because в can mean either in or into, and the case shows which one it is.

• в + prepositional = location: в салатнице = in the salad bowl
• в + accusative = motion into something: в салатницу = into the salad bowl

Here the vegetables are already inside the bowl, so Russian uses the location form в салатнице.

They are in the nominative case, because they are the grammatical subject of the sentence — the things that лежат.

• огурцы = nominative plural
• помидоры = nominative plural
• зелень = nominative singular

Even though English may translate this part more flexibly, in Russian these words are simply the subject.

Because зелень is a collective / mass noun in Russian. It means something like greens, herbs, or greenery as a category, not one countable item.

So even if English uses a plural word such as greens or herbs, Russian often uses singular зелень.

A useful comparison is English furniture:

• English: The furniture is...
• Russian: Зелень лежит / лежат вместе с другими вещами...

It refers to a substance or collection, not separate countable pieces.

Лежат is the plural present-tense form of лежать, which means to lie or to be lying.

Russian often uses position verbs when talking about where objects are:

• лежать = to lie
• стоять = to stand
• висеть = to hang

For loose food items in a bowl, Russian normally thinks of them as lying, so лежат sounds natural.

In English, lie can sound very physical or dramatic, but in Russian лежать is a normal everyday way to describe an object's position.

Because the subject is plural overall: огурцы, помидоры и зелень.

Even though зелень is singular by itself, the whole subject is a list of multiple things, so the verb agrees in the plural:

• огурцы лежат
• помидоры лежат
• огурцы, помидоры и зелень лежат

So лежат matches the full compound subject.

In Russian, present-tense быть is usually not expressed in ordinary sentences.

Also, this sentence is not just saying that the vegetables exist. It describes where they are and how they are positioned, so Russian naturally uses лежат instead.

Compare:

• В салатнице есть огурцы. = There are cucumbers in the salad bowl.
  This focuses more on existence/presence.

• В салатнице лежат огурцы, помидоры и зелень. = In the salad bowl there are cucumbers, tomatoes, and greens / The bowl contains...
  This sounds more concrete and natural for visible objects lying there.

Russian word order is flexible, and starting with В салатнице sets the scene first: as for the salad bowl, here is what’s in it.

This is very natural in Russian when introducing the contents or location of something.

Compare:

• В салатнице лежат огурцы, помидоры и зелень.
  Focuses first on the location.

• Огурцы, помидоры и зелень лежат в салатнице.
  Focuses first on the items themselves.

Both are grammatical, but the first version is especially natural if you are describing what is in the bowl.

That is a common Russian pattern in sentences that present something in a place:

[location] + [verb] + [things/persons there]

So:

• В салатнице лежат огурцы...
• На столе стоит бутылка.
• В комнате сидят люди.

This structure often sounds like In the bowl, there are... in English. It is especially common when introducing new information.

Russian has no articles.

So огурцы, помидоры, and зелень can mean things like:

• cucumbers / the cucumbers
• tomatoes / the tomatoes
• greens / the greens

The exact meaning depends on context, word order, and situation, not on separate words like a or the.

That is why the Russian sentence can sound natural in English in more than one way, even though the Russian itself does not mark articles at all.