"The food is on the plate."

Translation: Maten är på tallriken.

[J.KadenHar]

Can it also be "maten ligger på tallriken"?

[Arnauti]

Yes, we can say that.

[Dragonbrag]

What's ligger?

[devalanteriel]

lies, is lying - as in the horizontal position, not the telling of lies.

[Amanda.Zanon]

That's why I keep saying, swedish is the coolest language ever!

[learnfrenchray]

"Maten är på tallriken"; på can mean "on"? But "to" as well?

[Arnauti]

Just like in English, prepositions get different meanings with different verbs and nouns. So it depends on context. The most frequent prepositions get a lot of meanings.

Maten är på tallriken – The food is on the plate.
Jag tittar på dig. – I'm looking at you.
Jag tänker på dig. – I'm thinking of you.
Vi går på bio. – We're going to the movies.

Just stick with the course and you'll pick it up!

[mattheworb]

Like it says, it's just a matter of learning, practice and remembering! Overwhelming at first, but your brain does start to pick it up

[MSnets]

What are the different contexts we can use på, om, and vid? Since these are all noted as translations for on

[lemonadiee]

På is on and Vid is beside :) I'm not sure about om yet, it seems to be different in a few contexts!

[devalanteriel]

om is most often "about" or "around".

[MarisBoyd]

Maten står på tallriken?

[sotnosen93]

No, we don't use "står" for this particular situation. It's "är" or "ligger". You can use it for, to give an example, "Bordet står i köket", "The table is in the kitchen".