Breakdown of Смотри, не урони телефон в лужу!
не
not
телефон
phone
в
in / to (direction)
смотреть
to watch / to look at / make sure (in a warning)
Questions & Answers about Смотри, не урони телефон в лужу!
Why do we use the perfective verb урони here in a negative command? I thought negative commands usually take the imperfective.
Normal negative commands take the imperfective (like не роняй, which sounds like 'don't drop it on purpose'). But for accidental actions or warnings, we use the perfective aspect because we are warning against a single, completed result. With the warning phrase смотри, не, you can use either the perfective imperative (урони) or the perfective future (уронишь) to mean the exact same thing!
Is смотри literally telling the person to look at the puddle?
Not exactly. While смотри literally means 'look', the set phrase смотри, не translates to 'watch out, don't...' or 'careful not to...'. It is a very common conversational formula used to warn someone.
Why is it в лужу (accusative) instead of в луже (prepositional)?
Because the sentence describes the motion of dropping the phone into the puddle, rather than describing something that is already resting inside it. We use the preposition в with the accusative case to show direction or destination.
Why doesn't the word телефон change its ending if it is the direct object?
The word телефон is the direct object, so it is indeed in the accusative case. However, because it is a masculine, inanimate noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative (dictionary) form.