1.7 Short dialogues

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

These short dialogues contain really useful phrases. Now let’s take a close look at them.

The first dialogue starts with the question Skazhit, bud laska, u vas ye lampa? which means ‘Can you please tell me, do you have a lamp?’ The beginning of this sentence – skazhit, bud laska – literally means ‘tell please’. Let’s repeat this together: Skazhit, bud laska_____________. Second part of this sentence is u vas ye lampa? which means ‘do you have a lamp?’. So, remember: when you want to ask someone if they have something, you should say u vas ye…? and name an object /family member etc. Let’s repeat this together: u vas ye lampa? _____________.

Skazhit and u vas are plural forms. Both can be used as polite plural when talking to one person or as ‘normal’ plural.

The second dialogue is very similar but it is in singular. First person asks: Skazhy, bud laska, u tebe ye fen? which means ‘can you tell me please, do you have a hair-dryer?’ Let’s repeat this together in singular: Skazhy, bud laska, ___________ , u tebe ye fen?__________

In the third dialogue, the guest is asking for praska, an iron, in the fourth one for a pillow, podushka. In the fifth dialogue, they ask for a duvet, kovdra, and in the sixth one for shampoo, shampun.

The phrases Skazhit, bud laska, u vas yeor Skazhy, bud laska, u tebe yeare not just useful for asking for things you need. Now imagine you want to ask someone if they have a brother or a sister. How would you do this? You can say: ‘Skazhit, bud laska, u vas ye sestra?’_________________ ‘Skazhy, bud laska, u tebe ye brat?’ _____________________.

Finally, you may have noticed that we have included the dialogue numbers in Ukrainian. You can see numbers 1 to 6 in table 7 below.

Now listen to the dialogues again.