Рядом со школой стоит старый дуб.

Рядом со means next to, near, or beside.

In this sentence:

• Рядом со школой = next to the school / near the school

A useful thing to know is that рядом by itself is often an adverb meaning nearby, but when you want to say next to something, it is commonly used with с / со plus a noun in the instrumental case:

• рядом с домом = next to the house
• рядом со школой = next to the school

So here it works almost like a fixed pattern: рядом с/со + instrumental.

Russian often uses со instead of с when it is easier to pronounce.

The combination с школой is possible in theory, but it is awkward because of the consonant cluster at the start of школой. So Russian prefers:

• со школой

This is the same kind of pronunciation-based choice you see in other examples:

• со мной = with me
• со стола = from the table

So the extra о is there mainly for smoother pronunciation.

Because рядом с/со requires the instrumental case.

The base form is:

• школа = school

But after рядом с/со, it becomes instrumental:

• школой

So:

• школа → nominative
• школой → instrumental

This is a very common grammar point in Russian: certain prepositions require certain cases, and рядом с/со takes the instrumental.

Дуб is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence is about the oak tree: it is the thing that stands next to the school.

• дуб = oak / oak tree
• старый дуб = an old oak tree

Since it is the subject, nominative is exactly what you would expect here.

Yes, стоит literally means stands, but in Russian it is also very natural when talking about the location of something upright or fixed in place.

So:

• Рядом со школой стоит старый дуб
  literally: An old oak stands next to the school

In natural English, this is often translated as:

• There is an old oak tree next to the school
• An old oak tree stands next to the school

Russian often uses verbs like these instead of a simple there is structure:

• стоит = stands
• лежит = lies
• висит = hangs
• сидит = sits

For a tree, стоит is very natural because a tree is upright.

You usually would not say Рядом со школой есть старый дуб in the most neutral version of this sentence.

Russian often omits есть in simple present-tense sentences of existence/location, especially when another verb like стоит gives a more natural picture.

Compare:

• Рядом со школой стоит старый дуб = There is an old oak next to the school / An old oak stands next to the school

Using есть is not always impossible, but it changes the feel a bit. Стоит sounds more idiomatic and descriptive here.

Yes, it could be changed. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order.

This version:

• Рядом со школой стоит старый дуб

puts the location first, then the verb, then the subject. This is very natural when introducing something in a place: Next to the school, there stands an old oak.

Other possible orders include:

• Старый дуб стоит рядом со школой
• Стоит старый дуб рядом со школой

These are all grammatical, but they may sound slightly different in emphasis.

A good rule of thumb:

• putting Рядом со школой first emphasizes the location
• putting старый дуб first emphasizes the tree itself

Because старый has to agree with дуб in gender, number, and case.

Here:

• дуб is masculine singular nominative
• so the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative
• therefore: старый

Compare:

• старый дуб = old oak tree
• старая школа = old school
• старое дерево = old tree
• старые дома = old houses

So the adjective ending -ый matches the noun it describes.

It can mean oak in the sense of oak tree.

In this sentence, дуб clearly means oak tree, not the wood.

So:

• старый дуб = an old oak tree

In English, we often add tree, but Russian usually does not need a separate word here.

Russian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So старый дуб can mean:

• an old oak
• the old oak

Which one is meant depends on context.

In this sentence, with no extra context, English will often translate it as:

• There is an old oak tree next to the school

But in the right situation it could also be:

• The old oak tree stands next to the school

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• RYA-dəm sa SHKO-ləy sta-EET STA-rɨy doop

A few helpful notes:

• рядом: the я sounds like ya
• со школой: the stress is on шко in школой
• стоит: stress on the last syllable, стоИт
• старый: stress on the first syllable, стАрый
• дуб: sounds like doop, because final voiced consonants are devoiced in Russian pronunciation

If you want to sound natural, the main stressed words are usually:

• рЯдом со шкОлой стоИт стАрый дУб

Not exactly in the simplest traditional explanation.

A learner-friendly way to think about it is this:

• рядом is an adverb-like word meaning nearby
• to connect it to a noun, Russian uses с/со + instrumental

So together, рядом с/со functions a lot like an English preposition phrase meaning next to or near.

For learning purposes, it is very useful to memorize it as a unit:

• рядом с кем? чем? = next to whom? what?

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• возле школы = near the school / by the school
• около школы = near the school
• у школы = by the school / near the school

For example:

• Возле школы стоит старый дуб.
• Около школы стоит старый дуб.

These are all natural, but they are not always identical in tone or exact nuance.

One important grammar difference:

• рядом с/со takes the instrumental
• возле, около, and у usually take the genitive

So:

• рядом со школой → instrumental
• около школы → genitive

Not especially. It is perfectly normal Russian.

That said, стоит can sound a little more vivid than a plain English-style there is, because it gives a physical image: the oak is upright there.

So the sentence feels slightly descriptive, but still very natural and everyday. It is the kind of sentence a native speaker could easily say in normal speech.