5 How does it taste?

You’ll also find the audio version of this explanation useful, for the pronunciation and to listen to when you are on the go!

Let’s start with nouns. Nouns are the names of people, places, things and ideas. We have mentioned before that all Ukrainian nouns have gender, even when there is nothing obviously masculine or feminine about them! It is just a way of sorting them into groups. Most nouns which finish on a consonant are masculine. Those ending on -a, -ia are usually feminine. Most nouns finishing on -o and -e are neuter.

I hope you have noticed difference in adjectives’ gender endings. So, let’s sum it up. You could see from the examples, that masculine ending is -yi: solodkyi tort, kyslyi lymon, solonyi ohirok, teplyi chai, hirkyi shokolad. So, let’s say these phrases together focusing on masculine form of these adjectives: solodkyi tort________, kyslyi lymon ____, solonyi ohirok______, teplyi chai ________, hirkyi shokolad _______.

Feminine forms of adjectives can be found in these examples: solodka tsukerka, hostra kovbasa, hariacha kava, kholodna voda. As you can see, the feminine adjectives’ ending is -a. Let’s say together the following phrases focusing on feminine adjectives: solodka tsukerka______, hostra kovbasa________, hariacha kava_______, kholodna voda_____.

And here are neuter gender examples: kysle yabluko, smachne pechyvo, kholodne moloko. I hope you have spotted the ending of neuter gender adjectives – -e. Let’s repeat these phrases together: kysle yabluko _____, smachne pechyvo______, kholodne moloko__________.

Well done if you managed to find the difference between gender endings of adjectives on your own!