Sara Buzadzhi

If you've ever studied Russian formally, you probably remember going over the distinction between класть/положить and ставить/поставить. Both these verb pairs mean to place/put something somewhere, the first meaning to put something down in a lying position, and the second meaning to put something down in a standing/vertical position. I remember feeling foolishly optimistic about this concept the first time it was introduced. Then, of course, I started talking, and haven't stopped choosing the wrong verb since.

The problem is, you first have to figure out what, exactly, objects are doing in space in Russian. In English, we can pretty much get by with put: "Put the glass down on the table" or "Put that folder on the table."

But in Russian, you have to decide whether something is lying, sitting or standing. This problem comes up a lot in the kitchen. For example, what would you say a plate is doing on the table? With three available verbs - лежит, сидит, стоит - it seems most reasonable to go with лежит. Unfortunately, in Russian, тарелка стоит на столе (the plate stands on the table).

In English, I would usually just say "the plate is on the table", but if I had to choose one of the verbs above, I would say that it was sitting on the table. Logically, it seems like a nearly flat thing should be lying down, or at least sitting - plates don't seem tall enough to stand. Likewise, a pot stands on the stove in Russian, while a native speaker of English would say that it sits.

Some of the mix-up comes from the more limited range of the verb сидеть as compared to sit. For years, when I was talking about most household objects in Russian, I said that they сидели, until a Russian friend told me: «По-русски что-то может сидеть, только если у него есть задница и ноги». (Only something with an ass and legs can sit in Russian.)

Now whenever I want to say that something сидит (say, a teapot), I remember this helpful phrase and do a quick ass-legs test. Teapot? No. People, dogs, dolls? Sitters.

As far as стоит and лежит go, objects that have a fair distinction between height and width are pretty easy. Something like a refrigerator or a pole стоит; if it лежит, it's because it has been knocked over. This extends into more subtle areas of functionality; you could say that most of the time, if something is fulfilling a function, doing what it's supposed to be doing, it стоит. Again, anything you're cooking стоит на огне/плите, while if you've just placed something on a cool stove, it may лежать. Even a disc in a CD-player стоит, because it's being played. If it is just lying on the counter, you can say: «Какой диск у тебя там лежит?» (What's that CD lying over there?). But it would sound very strange to say, «Какой диск лежит у тебя в плеере?» (What CD is that lying in your stereo?) It sounds like your stereo is out of order, and you're just using it as a box.

This carries over to the verbs ставить/поставить and класть/положить. When you put a CD into a CD player, you ставишь диск. But if you're just placing it on the table, you кладешь его на стол. Going back to the kitchen, if you're putting the teapot on, you ставишь чайник. This even applies with something like dough: «Я поставила тесто». This means "I have left

the dough to rise"; you would use поставить, because it's as if you're setting it into operation. In English, we don't really have an exact equivalent of поставить - we have the more general put/place, or the more specific verbs having to do with a certain function, like play, both of which can be used fairly interchangeably:

"Can you put this CD in the CD player?" or "Can you play this CD?"

Положить is, again, used for those objects that will be lying down, or that are mostly flat and not functioning. So if you place a folder on the table, you кладешь папку на стол. If you're packing some bottles into a bag, you кладешь бутылки в сумку. You could try to поставить бутылки в сумку, but it would seem like they were standing up in there, and likely to fall over soon.

In conclusion, it's a big mess, but there does seem to be a bare minimum of logic to follow. This way you can avoid giving the impression of overly anthropomorphic or misbehaving objects: pots perching on the stove or dough lying idle while it should be rising.

Sara Buzadzhi is a Moscow-based translator and English teacher.