Lesson 2 - Ukrainian Made Easy

Welcome to Lesson #2 of Ukrainian Made Easy. Let's start by reviewing what we learned in the first episode. We'll have you play the role of translator. So, imagine you're in Kyiv with some friends of yours who don't know any Ukrainian. After each phrase, please say the English translation out loud. Ready?

Наталiя --- бізнеследі.

Nataliya is a businesswoman.

Мама -- програміст

Mom is a programmer.

Тато --- бізнесмен.

Dad is a businessman.

Він --- інженер.

He is an engineer.

Я --- музикант.

I'm a musician.

Наталiя --- студентка?

Is Nataliya a student?

Микола --- студент?

Is Mykola a student?

So, how did you do? If you got all of those, you should feel really good about yourself. If you had trouble, then it's probably a good idea to listen to the first podcast again, taking written notes as you go. Although, don't worry too much. These podcasts are cumulative, so you'll get plenty more practice with all the words we learn.

Anyway, here's our first new word for today. Please repeat after the native speaker:

Це

One more time:

це

Can you figure out the meaning? Imagine you're in Kyiv with your friends, John and Sandy. A Ukrainian person has asked you who your friends are, so you point to John and say:

Це Джон.

Then you point to Sandy and say:

Це Сенді.

Or imagine that a Ukrainian acquaintance is looking at a photo of your parents. You point to your dad and say:

Це тато.

Then you point to your mom and say...

...hmm, can you guess?

That's right:

Це мама.

So, how would you translate Це in this context?

In this context, це translates as "This is."

Pretend your Ukrainian friend is looking at a baby photo of you. Of course, she can't tell who it is, so you point to the photo and say:

Це я.

In English we'd say: This is me. But in Ukrainian they phrase it literally: This is... I.

Це я.

And that brings up an important point:

OK, next...

Imagine you're having dinner at your Ukrainian friend's house. Тітка Яна puts a glass in front of you and fills it with a fizzy brown liquid, telling you:

Це кола.

What do you think she said? Listen again:

Це кола.

She said: This is cola. So the word кола is yet another cognate. We say cola in English, and in Ukrainian:

кола

You're still at this Ukrainian dinner when your host Yana serves you a bowl of red soup, saying:

Це борщ.

Listen again:

Це борщ.

She said... This is borscht.

борщ

Now let's re-do this dinner scenario, except this time let's ask about the food or drink. So, ask Yana: This is cola?

Це кола?

She nods her head,

Так, Це кола.

Ask babusia: This is borscht?

Це борщ?

She smiles and nods:

Так, це борщ.

Так---as you probably guessed---is the Ukrainian word for YES.

So now it's Vadim who plunks down a pink-colored beverage in front of you.

Це компот.

What do you think he said? Listen again:

Це компот.

This is compote.

Compote, if you've never had it, is like extremely watered down juice. Anyway, pretend you're showing your Ukrainian friend some photos of a recent trip. She points to one photo and asks:

Це Сенді?

Tell her: Yes, this is Sandy.

Так, це Сенді.

She points to another:

Це Джон?

Tell her: Yes, this is John.

Так, це Джон.

Imagine you're showing her a family photo now. Try to say the following phrases in Ukrainian:

This is Dad. He is an engineer.

Це тато. Він --- інженер.

This is Tanya. She is a programmer.

Це Таня. Вона --- програміст.

This is Jeff. He is a musician.

Це Джефф. Він --- музикант.

This is Polina. She is a businesswoman.

Це Поліна. Вона --- бізнесвумен.

Or:

Вона --- бізнеследі

This is Steve. He is a student.

Це Стів. Він --- студент.

This is Tanya. She is a student.

Це Таня. Вона --- студентка.

Let's add two new Ukrainian words now. Repeat after the speaker:

мій....моя

One more time:

мій....моя

As always, let's try to figure out the meaning from context. Imagine you're at a party in Lviv. Lots of people are coming and going, putting their drinks down here, and their food down over there, and so on. You walk up to the table and pick up what you thought was your bowl of борщ, but you hear someone say...

Ей, це мій борщ!

Whoa! You put their soup down and back away apologetically. A bit later, you pick up the glass of cola that you're certain is yours. But again, someone tells you...

Ей, це моя кола!

Again, you put their glass down and wander off in search of yours. So, how would you translate these?

Це мій борщ translates as, "This is my borscht." And...

Це моя кола translates as "This is my cola."

Ukrainian has many ways to say "my", and we'll get to them all in time. For now, let's see if we can figure out when to use мій and when to use моя. In fact, I wonder if you can guess which to use. In three words, how might you say:

He is my student.

Він мій студент.

Or: She is my student.

Вона моя студентка.

Did you get those right? We'll come back to those in a minute. Let's continue, though, for just a moment by looking at two new, easy cognates. Can you guess which foods these are?

піца / суп

Say them out loud:

піца / суп

So, no pressure here, but how do you think you'd say: This is my soup.

Це мій суп.

How about: This is my pizza.

Це моя піца.

I bet you're catching on to a pattern here. Let's try some more, to make sure you're getting it. Say just...

My cola.

Моя кола

My pizza.

Моя піца.

My compote.

Мій компот.

My soup.

Мій суп.

My male student.

Мій студент.

My female student.

Моя студентка.

In your own words, how would you describe the pattern here? Hit pause and think about it for a moment.

OK, so... If a word ends in an "ah" sound---like піца, студентка, and кола---it needs "моя." Otherwise we use "мій."

This is where so many Ukrainian courses go wrong. They burden students with the intimidating grammar terms for this. They make you memorize stuff like "nominative case" and "adjective-noun agreement" and "declension paradigms" as if that's how we actually learn grammar. Well, it's not.

The superior method for teaching grammar is to simply let the student discover the patterns. And in Ukrainian, it's particularly easy because---as you'll see throughout these lessons---Ukrainian grammar is so often based on rhyming. Listen again. They'll exaggerate the endings of the words:

моя кола

моя піца

Вона...моя...студентка

I'll say it again, because this is a fundamental point: Ukrainian grammar is very often based on rhyming. These words that end in an "ah" sound: піца...кола...студентка and so on, are called feminine.

All the others that we've encountered are masculine. Now, admittedly, the masculine pairs weren't really rhyming. I mean, мій doesn't rhyme with суп. Nor does it rhyme with студент or інженер and so on. But masculine words will rhyme in many other situations. It depends on the phrase. Just know that there is a ton of rhyming in Ukrainian, and I'll be pointing it out as we go.

One last pair of new words, to wrap this all up today. Repeat after the speaker:

твій / твоя

One more time...

твій / твоя

Let's try to get them from context. To do so, let's go back one more time to that Ukrainian dinner party we were at. Remember how you were picking up other people's food, thinking it was yours? Well, the host has noticed that and approaches with a bowl of борщ. She hands it to you, saying:

Це твій борщ

She then hands you a drink...

це твоя кола

So, how would you translate these?

Це твій борщ.

translates as, "This is your borscht."

And Це твоя кола. translates as "This is your cola."

So, твій and твоя are two forms of the word "your." It's an informal version that we use with friends and family members. We'll learn the formal version in a future podcast.

Anyway, hand your friend a slice of піца and tell him: This is your pizza.

Це твоя піца.

Hand someone their soup and say: This is your soup.

Це твій суп.

Did you get those? We used твоя because it needs to rhyme with піца, but we used the masculine form, твій, with the word суп.

твоя піца

твій суп

Imagine now that there are two pizzas on the table. Point to your own, and then to your friend's pizza and say just: Mine....yours.

моя...твоя

A perfect rhyme.

Do the same thing with two glasses of compote. Mine...yours.

мій....твій

Again, a perfect rhyme.

Imagine you're at the party, talking with one of your friends who is a teacher. Pointing to a kid across the room, ask her: Is he your student?

Він твій студент?

Point to a girl and ask: Is she your student?

Вона твоя студентка?

Then you notice what seems to be a family photo on your friend's desk. Point to the woman in the photo and ask: Is this your mom?

Це твоя мама?

Now point to the man in the picture. Ask: Is this your dad?

Це твій тато?

How will she answer: Yes, this is my mom.

Так, це моя мама.

Yes, this is my dad.

Так, це мій тато.

Did you remember to use the masculine forms---твій and мій---for the word тато?

Excellent!

Alright, here's your final exam for this podcast. Try saying the following phrases in Ukrainian. And please say them out loud...

Is this my soup?

Це мій суп?

Yes, this is your borscht.

Так, це твій борщ.

Is this my pizza?

Це моя піца?

Yes, this is your pizza.

Так, це твоя піца.

Is she your mom?

Вона твоя мама?

Yes, this is my mom.

Так, це моя мама.

She is a businesswoman.

Вона --- бізнеследі.

This is my dad. He is an engineer.

Це мій тато. Він --- інженер.

I bet you did great with those, so treat yourself to a slice of піца today. And as you eat it, tell yourself, Це моя піца.

In the next episode, along with teaching you some cool new phrases, I'm going to clear up a myth that people seem to believe in about Ukrainian pronunciation. And in the meantime, as I mentioned at the end of the last episode, I've made a short, practice version of this podcast. It has just the exercises, without the explanations. So head over to UkrainianMadeEasy.com to grab a copy of those, download the transcript of this episode, and I'll see you in Lesson 3.