Basic Phrases, Vocabulary & Grammar (2023)

The Ukrainian language is an East Slavic language spoken by 30 million people in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. This tutorial was written by Ivan Karmin.

Basic Information

The infinitive of a verb ends in –ти (робити, жити) unlike Russian –ть (делать, жить).

Ukrainian uses Cyrillic alphabet with 33 letters. The unique letters are ї, є, ґ.

Ukrainian has a vocative case, e.g. Петре, йди-но сюди! Petre, jdy-no sjudy! (Peter, come here!) - but Petro in nominative.

Україно моя мила. Ukrajino moja myla. (My fair Ukraine.) - but Ukrajina.

It’s important that all letters are pronounced precisely as they are written.

Another difference with Russian lies in such Ukrainian words as voroh (means enemy), polon (imprisonment of war), holova (head, director). In Russian they are short vrag, plen, glava because of the Bulgarian tradition. When in 11-12^thcenturies Bulgarian religious texts written in Old Bulgarian language made their way to Russian lands they carried many new words and influenced the tongue.

Ukrainian for the long time has been a language of the village (selo). In 1654 Ukraine joined the Moscovy tsarstvo. Since that time and until the Soviet reign the Russian government issued barely 20 laws to forbid the usage of the Ukrainian language at schools, theatres, establishments. The publishing of books in Ukrainian was also under prohibition. While Russian flourished and became more rich and modern, Ukrainian was left to be a poor relative. The same policy was represented toward Belarus. This was made to forge one Eastern-Slavic nation with one language and one identity. The position of Ukrainian language was miserable. Taras Shevchenko (Тарас Шевченко) was an outstanding Ukrainian poet of the 19^th century who opposed the colonial regime and made a lot of work to standardize the language. However, Kotlarevsky founded the basis of modern Ukrainian.

When in 1991 Ukraine declared independence Ukrainian was announced the language of the state.

Ukrainian is very melodious and beautiful. Thus it’s often called solovjina mova (the nightingales’ tongue).

I am not trying to teach you all the Ukrainian but maybe this little work will sparkle your interest and move you to continue to learn this wonderful language.

THE LANGUAGE

Ukrainian alphabetУкраїнський алфавіт[Ukrajins’kyj alfavit]

The names of the months are of Slavic origin, not Roman as in Russian, i.e.

Words:

Земля --- zemlja --- Earth, Land, Soil

Вітер --- viter --- wind

Вогонь --- vogon’ --- fire

Вода --- voda --- water

Людина ---ljudyna ---a human-being

Чоловік--- cholovik --- a male, a husband

Жінка --- zhinka --- a woman

Жіночка --- zhinochka --- diminutive-affectionate for a woman

Хлопець --- chlopets’ --- a boy

Дівчина --- divchyna --- a girl

Син --- syn --- a son

Донька --- don’ka --- a daughter

Сонце --- sontse --- sun

Зірка, Зорі --- zirka, zori --- a star, stars

Місяць --- misjats’ --- moon, a month

Хмари --- chmary --- clouds

Небо --- nebo --- sky

Річка --- a river

Хліб --- bread

Молоко --- milk

Цукор --- sugar

Тістечко --- a cookie

Пиво --- beer

Родина --- a family

Вітчизна --- Vitchyzna --- Motherland

Дружба --- friendship

Ворожнеча --- hostility

Цей, ця, це, ці --- this (m, f, n, pl)

Той, та, те, ті --- that (m, f, n, pl)

Adjectives

Добрий --- good, kind

Поганий --- bad

Чудовий --- wonderful

Жахливий --- terrible

Цікавий --- interesting

Далекий --- far

Близький --- near

Солодкий --- sweat

Гіркий --- bitter

П’янкий --- intoxicating

Білий -- white

Червоний --- red

Чорний --- black

Жовтий --- yellow

Синій --- blue

Зелений --- green

Numerals

Один --- odyn --- 1

Два --- dva --- 2

Три --- try --- 3

Чотири --- chotyry --- 4

П’ять --- p| jat’ --- 5

Шість--- shist’ --- 6

Сім --- sim --- 7

Вісім --- visim --- 8

Дев’ять --- dev|jat’ --- 9

Десять --- desjat’ --- 10

Одинадцять --- odynadtsjat’ --- 11

Дванадцять --- dvanadtsjat’ --- 12

Тринадцять --- trynadtsjat’ --- 13

Чотирнадцять --- chotyrnadtsjat’ --- 14

Двадцять --- dvadtsjat’ --- 20

Двадцять один --- 21

Двадцять три… --- 23

Тридцять --- trydtsjat’ --- 30

Сорок --- sorok --- 40

П’ятдесят --- pjatdesjat --- 50

Шістдесят --- 60

Сімдесят --- 70

Сто --- 100

year 1984 --- тисяча дев’ятсот вісімдесят четвертий рік

DAYS OF A WEEK

Понеділок Monday

Вівторок Tuesday

Середа Wednesday

Четвер Thursday

П’ятниця Friday

Субота Saturday

Неділя Sunday

Verbs

Писатиto write

Заперечуватиto protest

Працюватиto work

Створюватиto create

Гратиto play (both a game or an instrument)

Ходитиto walk

Полюватиto hunt

Шукатиto look for

Здобуватиto gain

Спілкуватись to communicate

Займатись коханням to make love

Руйнуватиto ruin

Зустрічатиto meet

Будуватиto build

Вмітиto be able to

CASES

There are seven cases in Ukrainian: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative, and Vocative.

N.хто, що?час – time, masculine [chas]

G.кого, чого?час|у

D.кому, чому?час|у

A.кого, що?час

I.ким, чим?час|ом

L.на кому, на чому?час|і

N.хто, що?вол|я – freedom, feminine [volja]

G.кого, чого?вол|і

D.кому, чому?вол|і

A.кого, що?вол|ю

I.ким, чим?вол|ею

L.на кому, на чому?на вол|і

N.хто, що?свят|о – a holiday, neuter [svjato]

G.кого, чого?свят|а

D.кому, чому?свят|у

A.кого, що?свят|о

I.ким, чим?свят|ом

L.на кому, на чому?на свят|і

Verb conjugation

1) Чита|ти – to read:

Other verbs that are conjugated like that: вміти, думати, будувати, працювати, мріяти, зустрічати, кохати, грати

2) Пис|ати – to write:

3) Бач|ити – to see:

Other verbs that are conjugated like that: ходити (but 1^st person sing. ходжу 3^rd person pl. ходять)

Сид|іти – to sit:

4) Пити – to drink:

5) Їсти – to eat:

PHRASES

Examples of Ukrainian sentences:

Ласкаво просимо, дорогі гості!

Welcome, dear guests

Добрий день, шановний колега

Good day, respected colleague

Будь ласка, допоможіть мені в цьому

Please, help me with this

Я бачу, що це буде не важко зробити

I see that this will be not difficult to do

Ми думаємо, що ситуація зайшла вкрай далеко

We think that the situation has come way too far

На добраніч, солодких снів!

Good night, sweat dreams

Я люблю пити каву з вершками

I like to drink coffee with cream. Кава – coffee, f.

Діти – це майбутнє

Children are the future

Я вивчаю англійську мову

I study English language. Я вивчу ~ / I will study English. Я вивчив ~ / I have learnt English.

Завтра ми з подругою йдемо в кіно

Tomorrow we with a girlfriend go to the cinema(My girlfriend and I are going to the cinema tomorrow)

Вона дуже вродлива дівчина

She is a very beautiful girl. You may have alredy noticed that in Ukrainian there is no ‘am/is/are’ articles in sentences. Due to the presence of the genders, cases, declensions and conjugations there is no need of them.

Тієї ж ночі ми втекли звідти

That night we escaped from there. ‘Ж’ in here is to emphasize ‘exactly that night’. Звідти – from there, звідси – from here.

Я не їстиму цього

I won’t eat this. Note that in Ukrainian the future tense of the verb may be formed by adding –ме –му –мусь –мемо. ‘Я не буду їсти цього’ is also possible.

- Що ти робитимеш завтра?

- Дивитимусь телевізор

- What are you doing tomorrow?

- I will watch TV

Я писатиму, він робитиме, вона гратиме, я не заперечуватиму, ми не працюватимемо

I will write, he will do/work, she will play, I will not object, we will not work