Word
На столе лежали заколка, серёжки и тонкий браслет, которые она собиралась надеть вечером.
Meaning
On the table there were a hair clip, earrings, and a thin bracelet that she was going to wear in the evening.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of На столе лежали заколка, серёжки и тонкий браслет, которые она собиралась надеть вечером.
стол
the table
и
and
на
on
лежать
to lie
Questions & Answers about На столе лежали заколка, серёжки и тонкий браслет, которые она собиралась надеть вечером.
Why is it на столе, not на стол?
Because на столе means on the table in the sense of location.
After на, Russian usually uses:
- Prepositional case for location: на столе = on the table
- Accusative case for movement toward a place: на стол = onto the table
So:
- На столе лежали... = the items were already there
- Она положила заколку на стол = she put the hair clip onto the table
Why is the verb лежали plural when заколка is singular?
Because the real subject is the whole list:
заколка, серёжки и тонкий браслет
Together, these make a plural compound subject, so the verb is plural: лежали.
Even though the first noun is singular, the sentence is talking about several items lying on the table.
Why does the sentence start with На столе лежали... instead of naming the objects first?