Welcome to your first lesson of Ukrainian! Learning Ukrainian is a fun adventure that will help you meet interesting people and embrace new cultures. Learn with us for free!
Useful phrase in Ukrainian
Listen and repeat the following sentence:
Привíт! Як спра́ви?
Hi! How are you?
Привíт! is an informal greeting equivalent of our “hi”. It is used when meeting friends.
Як спра́ви? is the short form of “як твої́ справи?” (literally “how (are) your things?”). It’s an informal question used with friends.
Ukrainian vocabulary
In this lesson, we will practice the following Ukrainian words. Listen to the audio and remember the vocabulary:
Привíт
Hi
Як спра́ви?
How are you?
украї́нець
Ukrainian (male)
украї́нка
Ukrainian (female)
америка́нець
American (male)
америка́нка
American (female)
так
yes
ні
no
я
I
ти
you
Dialogues
Listen carefully to the following Ukrainian dialogues. They will help you understand this lesson’s vocabulary in the right context:
Dialogue 1
Привíт!
Hi!
Привíт! Як спра́ви? Я О́льга, а ти?
Hi! How are you? I (am) Olga, and you?
А я Майкл.
And I (am) Michael.
Ти украї́нець?
(Are) you Ukrainian?
Ні. А ти?
No. And you?
Так, я украї́нка.
Yes. I’m Ukrainian.
Dialogue 2
Ти украї́нець?
(Are) you Ukrainian?
Так, я украї́нець. А ти? Ти украї́нка?
Yes, I (am) Ukrainian. And you? (Are) you Ukrainian?
Ні, я америка́нка.
No, I’m American.
Ukrainian grammar
Let’s study the grammar used in this lesson:
The verb “to be” in present
The verb “to be” is expressed in Ukrainian by the verb “бу́ти” (pronunciation: bú-ty). In the dialogues above, you have seen that the verb “to be” only appears in the English translation (I am, you are, he is,…).:
That is because in modern Ukrainian, the verb “бу́ти” is not used in present tense (but it is used in the past and future). Look at the following examples:
- Ivan is an actor. – Іва́н – акто́р.
- You are Peter. – Ти Пíтер.
- I am Helen. – Я Хе́лен.
Іn the first phrase (Іва́н – акто́р) you can see a hyphen (“-“) instead of the verb “to be”. It happens when the subject (Іва́н) and the predicate (акто́р) are both nouns. It’s not important to memorize this rule now but don’t be surprised if you see it.
Attention
Different ways to say “you” in Ukrainian.
In this lesson, we’ve learnt the word “ти” to say “you”. However, you should know that “ти” is an informal way to say “you” in Ukrainian. You can use it with friends and family. In our next lessons, you will see the formal “you” which is used while talking to people you don’t know.
The three genders
Ukrainian nouns, adjectives and pronouns have genders:
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
In English, nouns have no gender, so this can be a confusing concept. It is difficult to say why a table in Ukrainian (стіл) is masculine and a bed (лíжко) is neuter. There is no logic in the elections of genders and you simply must learn it.
The ending of a word can help us to identify its gender. Look for example at the endings we have seen in the dialogues:
- украї́нець (masculine)
- украї́нка (feminine)
The word “Ukrainian” has the ending “-ець” for masculine and “-ка” for feminine gender. Basicly, most nouns ending in a consonant (or consonant + soft sign) are masculine. And most nouns ending in “a” are feminine. The most typical neuter endings are “o” and “e“.
Test
Check if you know this lesson: