На полке лежал пончик с глазурью, но я выбрала маленькое пирожное.

A doughnut with icing was lying on the shelf, but I chose a small pastry.

Breakdown of На полке лежал пончик с глазурью, но я выбрала маленькое пирожное.

• я: I
• маленький: small
• с: with
• на: on

Questions & Answers about На полке лежал пончик с глазурью, но я выбрала маленькое пирожное.

Why is на полке used, and what case is полке?

На полке means on the shelf.

Here на is being used to show location, so полка goes into the prepositional case:

• полка = shelf
• на полке = on the shelf

Compare:

• на полку = onto the shelf, to the shelf motion/direction
• на полке = on the shelf location

So in this sentence, the doughnut is already there, which is why на полке is correct.

Why does the sentence use лежал instead of something like был?

Russian often prefers a more specific verb than English does.

• лежал = was lying
• был = was

For physical objects, Russian commonly uses verbs like:

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

A doughnut on a shelf is imagined as lying, so лежал sounds natural.

English might simply say There was a doughnut on the shelf, but Russian often says more literally A doughnut was lying on the shelf.

Why is in the nominative case?