Lesson 18 - Ukrainian Made Easy

Welcome to UME Lesson 18. Today we start with some easy cognates. Repeat after the native speaker:

сувенір

Again: сувенір

The little things we buy while on vacation --- things like mugs and T-shirts and magnets for the fridge --- are all considered сувеніри.

So, in English we call them souvenirs, and in Ukrainian: сувеніри

Did you hear that и sound at the end of the word this time? That's the plural ending. The equivalent of our "s" in English. Like souvenir versus souvenirs. Think, for example, about the word for crepes: млинці

It has that і ending because it's plural. We're saying pancakes.

But back to our new word, how would you say: I want a souvenir.

Я хочу сувенір.

Let's try one more new word: машина

It's kind of a cognate. But let's get it from context: The Mercedes S Series is my favorite машина.

But in the U.S., the best selling машина is the Toyota Camry.

So, a машина is a car.

Ask your friend: Do you like my car?

Тобі подобається моя машина?

And now say: I want a car.

Я хочу машину.

Obviously we changed that "ah" ending to an "uu" sound. машину

Alright. Let those sink into the ever growing Ukrainian language center in your brain and we'll do some review of the previous lesson. How would you say:

I don't speak Spanish.

Я не говорю іспанською.

Jessica doesn't speak Ukrainian.

Джессіка не говорить українською.

Ask your friend: You speak English?

Ти говориш англійською?

Mom doesn't work.

Мама не працює.

She wants to dance.

Вона хоче танцювати.

My friend Anton lives in Poltava.

Мій друг Антон живе в Полтаві.

Ask: Andriy, want coffee?

Андрій хочеш каву?

Ok, I will. (As in: Ok, I'll have some coffee.)

Добре, я буду.

So, in that last phrase, Добре is a way of agreeing. We translate it as "Okay" or "Sure." But as I said when we first learned it, this very common word has other uses as well. How do you think it would translate in this phrase. My Ukrainian friend tells me...

Марк, ти добре говориш англійською.

And I tell him: Дякую.

So, Добре also translates as "good" or "well." As in, You speak Ukrainian well.

Ти добре говориш українською.

So tell your Ukrainian friend: You speak English well.

Ти добре говориш англійською.

(swell)

Alright! Next, please repeat the following two word phrase:

Мені потрібен

One more time?

Мені потрібен

See if you can come up with a translation for it. So, imagine you're working on your car. You thought you could turn this one bolt with just your fingers, but it's too tight. So you call out to the friend who's helping you: "I can't turn this bolt. Мені потрібен that wrench."

Or, say you're at a friend's house and he has WiFi. You're trying to log in, but it's asking you for the password. So you tell him, "I can't log on to your Wi-Fi. Мені потрібен the password."

So, Мені потрібен translates as I need. But literally it means, "To me is needed." Which makes sense, right? Back in Lesson 11 we learned Мені подобається which literally translates how?

Right! "to me is pleasing."

Try both of those: To me is needed...to me is pleasing

Мені потрібен / Мені подобається

Great! So try saying, all in Ukrainian: I need a bank.

Мені потрібен банк.

How about: I need a souvenir.

Мені потрібен сувенір.

Now let's learn two more easy cognates that we can use with this construction. Listen and repeat:

комп'ютер
телефон

One more time:

комп'ютер
телефон

I'm pretty confident you understood those, so let's jump right to using them. Try saying:

I need a computer.

Мені потрібен комп'ютер.

I need a phone.

Мені потрібен телефон.

Now let me stop here for a second. In those phrases we said we needed the following things:

банк, сувенір, комп'ютер, телефон.

Now, I'll give you one hundred imaginary hryvnia if you can tell me what all those words have in common.

Ponder....

(swell)

The answer? They're all masculine. That is, they all end with a consonant. And that's why they all got "Мені потрібен"

So, for one thousand imaginary hryvnia, can you guess how to say: I need a car.

Hit pause and think about it.

(swell)

Ok...ready?

I need a car.

Мені потрібна машина.

We need the feminine потрібна to rhyme with the feminine машина.

Мені потрібна машина.

Imagine you're cooking Ukrainian pancakes with caviar...

...but you're out of caviar. So as you're racing out of the house, your grandma asks you with two words: Where're you going? (Literally: You...to where?)

Ти куди?

Tell her: I need caviar.

Мені потрібна ікра.

How might you tell your friend: You need a job. (Literally: To you is needed work.)

Тобі потрібна робота.

Excellent!

Ok, so...back to our new stuff. If you're feeling tired how would you say:

I need coffee.

Мені потрібна кава.

Ask: Where is my phone?

Де мій телефон?

Tell your friend: I like your car.

Мені подобається твоя машина.

Let's learn one more new cognate. Listen and repeat..

інтернет

Again? інтернет

Imagine you're in a cafe in Kiev. Tell the waitress:

I need the internet.

Мені потрібен інтернет.

Is there Wi-Fi?

Є Вайфай?

And here's our last new word of today's lesson. It's not a cognate, so listen carefully and repeat:

квартира

Again? квартира

Imagine I'm giving my friend a tour of upper Manhattan. We're outside a tall building. "This is where I used to live. Up on the seventh floor, I had a two bedroom квартира."

In American English we call it an apartment. In British English, a flat. And In Ukrainian... квартира

It's related to the word "quarters" in English. As in, "Someone will show you to your quarters." From quarters....we get ...квартира.

Try to say: I need an apartment.

Мені потрібна квартира.

Did you remember to use the feminine version, потрібна, to rhyme with the feminine квартира? If so, you're really getting the hang of how Ukrainian works. So let's try just a few more phrases. Ask your friend:

Is this your apartment?

Це твоя квартира?

Say: No, this isn't my apartment.

Ні. Це не моя квартира.

Ask your friend: Is this your computer?

Це твій комп'ютер?

Say: Yes, it's mine.

Так, це мій.

Ask your friend if he needs the internet:

Тобі потрібен інтернет?

Alright. Great job today. I hope you put all these on your flashcards. In the next episode, we'll learn how to talk about the things we have. I'll see you then!

Of course, please go to UkrainianMadeEasy.com to get the transcript and the audio downloads.