1.1. Viktoriia’s home in Kharkiv

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 look at this text closely. I hope you can translate its beginning. The text starts with usual greeting and introducing herself by the speaker: Dobryi den! Mene zvut Viktoriia, moya profesiia – uchytelka (‘Good afternoon! My name is Viktoriia and my profession is a teacher’). She continues: Zaraz ya i mii syn Danylo v Anhlii, a mii cholovik Oleksandr – v Ukraini. (‘Now I and my son Danylo are in England, and my husband Oleksandr is in Ukraine’). After this Viktoriia says:

Nash dim – u misti Kharkiv, which means ‘Our home is in the city of Kharkiv’. Nash means ‘our’, dim means ‘home’, nash dim is ‘our home’. Please repeat after me: nash dim ___________. And once again: nash dim _________.

Viktoriia carries on: Tam nasha kvartyra, which means ‘Our flat is there’. Tam means ‘there’. Please repeat after me: tam_____, and once again: tam____. Nasha kvartyra means ‘our flat’. Please repeat: nasha kvartyra _____________.

You may wonder why Viktoriia said nash dim but nasha kvartyra. The answer is simple: Dim is a masculine noun, and kvartyra is the feminine one. Possessive pronouns have to agree in gender with nouns. Nash is a masculine form and nasha is the feminine one. So, let’s repeat together: nash dim ____________, nasha kvartyra ________________.

Viktoriia describes her flat. She says: U kvartyri try kimnaty: vitalnia, spalnia, kimnata syna, kukhnia, tualet i vanna which means ‘There are three rooms in the flat: living room, bedroom, our son’s room, kitchen, toilet and a bathroom’. Let’s look attentively into this sentence. Unlike in England where property description starts with the number of bedrooms, Ukrainians count general number of rooms in it since it gives you a better sense of the property’s size (obviously, an office can be easily converted into a bedroom or vice versa). Viktoriia says: U kvartyri try kimnaty (literally – ‘in the flat three rooms’). Please repeat: U kvartyri try kimnaty __________________, u kvartyri try kimnaty ____________________. Kimnaty is plural of kimnata (‘room’). Please repeat singular and plural of this word: kimnata _____________, kimnaty _____________. In the very beginning of this phrase she says u kvartyri which means ‘in the flat’. You might have noticed that usual ending -a in the word kvartyra was changed to -i: u kvartyri, like in phrases ‘v Ukraini’, ‘v Anhlii’. As I said you earlier, don’t worry about endings at this stage but don’t be surprised to hear different endings!

After this phrase Viktoriia lists all the rooms: vitalnia ________ (‘living room’), spalnia __________ (bedroom), kimnata syna ____________ (‘our son’s room’), kukhnia __________(kitchen), vanna _________ (bathroom) and tualet __________ (toilet).

Viktoriia finishes her story with the sentence: U vitalni ye balkon, which means ‘There is a balcony off the living-room’. You can see word ye in this sentence. This is present tense of the verb ‘to be’ which as you probably remember is usually omitted in Ukrainian.

Now listen to this text once again.