This all depends on the type of data in the register you’re pasting. If the data is line-oriented data (yanked with yy for instance) it will be pasted as a whole line above or below the cursor. If the data is character-oriented (yanked with e.g. y2w) then it will be pasted at or before the cursor position in the current line.
See :help linewise-register for more info on the interaction between the type of register and the put command.