Place or Direction: pod stolom, pod stôl

Some Slovak prepositions take two cases. The case shows whether something is somewhere or moves there.

• pred, za, pod, nad, medzi + instrumental for position (where?): pod lavicou (under the bench)
• the same prepositions + accusative for movement to a place (where to?): pod lavicu
• na + locative for position: na stoličke; na + accusative for movement: na stoličku
• v takes the locative: v chladničke (in the fridge). For movement into a place, Slovak uses do + genitive instead.

Ask yourself whether the verb describes a state (ležať, visieť, stáť, spať) or a movement to a new place (položiť, dať, zavesiť, spadnúť). Movement inside one place keeps the position case: Lietadlo letí nad mestom. Feminine nouns show the difference clearly: position -ou / -e / -i, direction -u.