Ukrainian/Lesson 4
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[edit] Grammar in general
For the beginning learner, it is probably easiest just to remember phrases, rather than concentrating on grammar. But in the long run, learning about the grammar will help you learn faster.
It should be noted that grammars are full of exceptions. A grammar portrays an academic viewpoint of a language - but any language is spoken by many people, in many places, and many times. Artifacts creep in, or the grammarian poorly understands the reality, or takes shortcuts and gets things "mostly right." A grammar is a tool, but it is not "always right".
Most concepts for a tourist, or for rudimentary survival can be conveyed with simple sentences, a simple grammar, and a simple vocabulary. I want this. Jim is tall.
This structure in English is, more or less, the familiar "Subject-Verb-Object" construction. A more robust, more efficient sentence, that can convey complex thought quickly, requires a more complicated grammar. I bought the new magazine at the news stand on the corner. — The magazine is new. I bought it at the news stand. The news stand is on the corner.
The same idea is conveyed, but the "simpler" structure is actually quite confusing unless someone is prepared to assemble the ideas.
[edit] Case system
In English, we use a structure like "subject verb direct-object indirect-object prepositional-phrase..."
The position of a word impacts its meaning in a sentence. Changing the position of a word, can be confusing. The well known phrase "Throw papa down the stairs his hat." illustrates the point.
Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and most Slavic languages in general, being synthetic languages, employ a different means of illustrating the relationship between words. This is called "case". The ending of a word changes to reflect its function. Case system was present in the Proto-Indo-European language, but some languages have lost it. In Modern English there are only two noun cases (Common and Genitive), though pronouns show a few relics of case (I/me, she/her, who/whom). It is because cathegory of case in the Englsh language is almost lost, while it was present in the past. Loss of case system took place in some Slavic languages as well: in Bulgarian and Macedonian languages thare are only two cases (Nomiative and Vocative).
Ukrainian kept case system. In fact, there are a Vocative case in Ukrainian that is almost fully extinct in very closely-related Russian and Belorussian (the latter two preseve only in old phrases, typically of religious character). While it makes language a bit more complicated, the word order allows you to express different shades of meaning by changing the word order without changing the sense of sentence in general.
Changing the word order only slightly alters meaning of the sentence. Look at these examples:
| Ukrainian | Englsh |
| Я чита́ю кни́гу. | I read a/the book |
| Кни́гу чита́ю я. | I read a/the book (It’s me who reads the book) |
| Кни́гу я чита́ю. | I read a/the book (It’s the book I read) |
Of course, intonation is more important than word order, but it does play an important role.
In English, when we want to swap the object and the subject, we just move them to the proper place. In Ukrainian, we have to change endings of a noun. So, The book reads me. will be Мене́ чита́є кни́га. (or Кни́га чита́є мене́. and other variants). The word я turned into мене́, just like Englsh I became me, and the word книгу became книга. As you can see, nouns change only endings and can still be recognized. Pronouns are typically ommited in the present and future tenses due to context, as the verb stem indicates who performs the action, i.e, я чита́ю ("I Read"), can be shortened to just чита́ю and so forth. This is not the case when talking about the past tense, as these agree with the gander (masculine, femenine, neuter) and number (singular or plural), so the pronoun is necessary here.
[edit] What does every case mean
Nominative case (Називни́й ві́дмі́нок) is used for the subject of the sentence. It is
What we consider the subject of a sentence will generally be in "nominative" (naming) case - the form of a word that is found in a dictionary.
The object of a sentence will generally be in either "Accusative case" or "Genitive" case. Things that are not alive reflect accusative case when they are the direct object of a sentence. Things that are alive reflect genitive. These two cases can be easily confused for the non-native speaker.
When a thing is given (to whom? - to me) another case is used - the dative case.
When a thing accompanies, or is used, (with whom? - with me) another case is used, called the instrumental (the thing is instrumental in the action.)
Each preposition has its own quirk, but there is a "prepositional case" used for locations - in, at, and on.
Finally, a relic. Vocative case (calling a name) is used rarely in Russian, perhaps somewhat more in Ukrainian. The stereotypical phrase is invoking "my god" or "Bozhe Miy", or calling to Victor "Viktore."
A word is modified to reflect whether it is a direct object, indirect object, and so forth.
Boh (God)
The dictionary form of God is Boh, a "masculine" noun - as marked by the consonant ending. Grammatically, God would also be "animate."
- The Nominative - boh (God)
- Accusative - boha
- Genitive - boha (of God)
- Instrumental - bohom (by means of God)
- Vocative - bozhe (my God)
Note, for a masuline, ANIMATE object accusative and Genitive HAVE THE SAME FORM
-a
- Nominative - zhurnal (magazine)
- Accusative - zhurnal (about the magazine)
- Genitive - zhurnala (of the magazine)
- Instrumental - zhurnalom (using the magazine)
- Locative - zhurnali (on/in the magazine)
Note, for a masuline, lifeless or inanimate object nominative and accusative have the same form, no ending. You see this in an example sentence below.
The dictionary form of book is knyha, a "feminine" noun, as denoted by the -a ending.
I am reading a book (literally, I read book) Ya chytaju knyhu.
The ending -u attached to a feminine noun implies Accusative case (direct object.)
- Nominative - knyha
- Accusative - knyhu
- Genitive - knyhy
- Instrumental - knyhoju
- Locative - knyzi
A point of emphasis - my example "I read book" uses SVO order. In Ukrainian it does not have to. "I book read" is equaly valid.
Ya chytaju knyhu. Ya knyhu chytaju.
Changing the word order MAY CHANGE EMPHASIS, but a beginning speaker should not worry greatly about this detail.
You may see tables that reflect this sort of pattern, rather then spelling out the whole word.
- Nominative knyha
- Accusative -u
- Genitive -y
- Instrumental -oju
- Locative -i
In the long run, this is important because there are six (or seven) cases, and nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (and some other related things) change ("decline") in varying ways, according to case (function) and gender.
I am reading the new magazine.
Ya chytaju novyj zhurnal.
Subject Verb Object, or Nominative Verb Accusative
The adjective "new / novyj" is in accusative case - but you would not really note that, since for MASCULINE, INANIMATE objects, nominative, and accusative have the same general form.
Pronouns.
In English we see a fairly simple shift in pronouns I - me, he - him, she - her. In Ukrainian, pronouns shift with case much more dramatically. (remember, pronouns when referring to people are ANIMATE.)
- Nominative - ja, ty, vin, vona, vono, my, vy, vony
- Accusative - mene, tebe, joho, jiji, vono, nas, vas, jikh
- Genitive - mene, tebe, joho, jiji, vono, nas, vas, jikh
- Dative - meni, tobi, jomu, jiji, jomu, nam, vam, jim
- Instrumental - mnoju, toboju, nym, neju, nym, namy, vamy, nymy
- Locative - mene, tebe, n'omu, n'ij, n'omu, nas, vas, jikh
It is important for a beginning speaker to remember some basic patterns for LISTENING COMPREHENSION.
Ya (I) in all other cases will wind up begining with an M.. If a speaker says mene, meni, mnoju... the important thing is probably that they are referring to themselves.
Ty (you) in all other cases will wind up begining with an T.. If a speaker says tebe, tobi, toboju... the important thing is probably that they are referring to YOU.
Number - things generally have number, one few many, uncountable.
In English, things like sugar, or milk are considered uncountable. We often use words like "some" or "a bit" to indicate that these things are hard to measure. Ukrainian will treat this a little differently.
Similarly, nouns have grammatical gender masculine, feminine, nueter, and often this "gender" reflects a real gender, the word for a male horse is masculine. However, this grammatical gender is not real. Some words have a grammatical gender that is actually opposite of their real gender. Other words have a gender that cannot be guessed, but rather must be memorized. For the beginning learner, it is probably easiest just to remember phrases, rather than concentrating on grammar. But in the long run, learning about the grammar will help you learn faster.
---Real Sentences (what you probably wanted to read.)
I would like a cup of tea, please.
Ya khochu chashku chayu, proshu.
Where is the bathroom?
De laznychka?
This is my luggage
Tse mij bagazh.
I would like to buy the white tennis shoes.
Ya khochu kupyty bili snikeri.
( This article is a draft. Initially it may make use of poor references, and use latin script rather than cyrillic script. Feel free to make MEANINGFUL changes.
Ukrainian is historically an indo-european, and (east) slavic language, with signifigant Polish, Russian, German, and other influences. In the literary era, French vocabulary may have been adopted. As empires rose and fell other languages influenced. In the television era English vocabulary may have been adopted, and so forth. Modern usage will reflect ALL OF THESE SOURCES to one degree or another.
A beginning learner may find few free resources. For grammar, Russian resources are relevant although there are differences between Russian and Ukrainian.
Russian grammar and vocabulary are widely used and understood. Polish vocabulary may also be consulted for comparison, but generally this is probably an advanced task. )
"Ukrainian case endings are somewhat different from Old East Slavic, and the vocabulary includes a large overlay of Polish terminology. Russian na pervom etazhe "on the first floor" is in the prepositional case. The Ukrainian corresponding expression is na pershomu poversi. -omu is the standard locative (prepositional) ending, but variants in -im are common in dialect and poetry, and allowed by the standards bodies. The x of Ukrainian poverx has mutated into s under the influence of the soft vowel i (k is similarly mutable into ts in final positions). Ukrainian is the only modern East Slavic language which preserves the vocative case." from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language
