Transcript

In this short audio Bohdan talks about his family. He introduces himself in the basic way: Ya Bohdan (‘I am Bohdan’) and then introduces his wife and kids: Tse moia simia – druzhyna Maryna ta moi dity: dochka Mariia ta donka Oksana. (‘This is my family – my wife Maryna and my children: daughter Mariia and daughter Oksana’).

Let’s look at this sentence closely. First let me explain one difference between English and Ukrainian grammar. English speakers really like using possessive pronouns (words my, your, his, her, our, their) and it sounds obligatory for an English person to say ‘He put his hand into his pocket’. Since it’s not quite common for decent people to put their hands into someone’s pockets, Ukrainians don’t use possessive pronouns when it is not necessary. So, instead of saying ‘He put his hand into his pocket’ a Ukrainian person will normally say ‘He put a hand into a pocket’. It helps to avoid unnecessary words in sentences and sometimes – repetition of the same word in one sentence.

Let’s return to the text. Bohdan says: ‘Tse moia simia – druzhyna Maryna ta moii dity’ (‘This is my family – wife Maryna and my children’). Bohdan could also say: ‘Tse moia simia – druzhyna Maryna ta dity’ (‘This is my family – wife Maryna and children’). Possessive pronouns have gender and plural forms in Ukrainian, and we can see ‘my’ in feminine and plural forms: ‘moia’ (feminine) and ‘moii’ (plural). Please repeat these forms after me: ‘moia’_____, ‘moii’ _______.

Bohdan talks about his children. He says moi dity, which means ‘my children’. One child is dytyna, please repeat with me dytyna. Plural – ‘children’ – is dity, please repeat dity. Once again: dytyna, dity.

Bohdan has two daughters. He calls them dochka Mariia ta donka Oksana. Here you hear two synonyms for ‘daughter’ in Ukrainian, both of them are used frequently: dochka and donka. Please repeat after me: dochka, donka.

Last sentence in the text is Zaraz vony v Anhlii (‘Now they are in England’). Let’s repeat together names of Ukraine and England: Ukraina, Anhliia.