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Hi! I'm searching for Ukrainian-language discussion questions that I can answer when I'm doing language exchanges with speaking partners. Does anyone know where I can find more discussion questions like the ones below for someone at an A2 level (me)? It would help me add more structure to the conversations I have and make it easier for me to measure my progress in speaking Ukrainian. Thanks!

Як вас звати? / What is your name?

1. Скільки вам років? / How old are you?
2. Звідки ви ? Where are you from?
3. Де ви народилися? / Where were you born?
4. Чи є у вас брати або сестри? / Do you have any brothers or sisters?
5. Розкажіть про них. Tell us about them.
6. Розкажіть про своїх батьків. Як їх звати? Скільки їм років? Де вони живуть? Tell us about your parents. What are their names? How old are they? Where do they live?
7. Чим займаються ваші батьки? / What do your parents do for a living?
8. Чи є у вас домашні тварини? / Do you have any pets?
9. Як ви проводите час зі своєю сім'єю? / How do you spend time with your family?
10. Чи є у вашій сім'ї якісь особливі традиції? / Does your family have any special traditions?
11. Чи є у вас хоббі? Do you have a hobby?
12. Як давно ви займаєтесь своїм хобі? / How long have you been practicing your hobby?
13. Який ваш улюблений актор або актриса? What is your favorite actor or actress? 
14. Який ваш улюблений фільм або серіал? What is your favorite movie or tv series?

Що ще ви хотіли б розказати про себе? What else would you like to tell you about yourself?

Hi! I trying to learn Ukrainian but I don’t know where to start! I’ve tried using Duolingo and Babbel, but as an English speaker, it’s hard for me with the alphabet! My great grandma is from Ukraine, specifically from the Ternopil Oblast, and I only know a couple of words in Ukrainian: how to say hello, Hanka, and Ponny,(I don’t know how to actually spell it!) but I know it means big shot! My Ukrainian family left in the 40s so maybe it’s an old word but I don’t know! Also I’m American if it helps! I want to be able to speak with my great grandmother!

I know for a fact that good morning in Ukrainian is доброго ранку, but Duolingo insists on teaching it to me as добре ранок. Why is that? What is the grammar involved? Are both of them right or is Duolingo wrong?

That's probably a stupid question and i can't provide any examples since i played it a few months back. I'm a native russian speaker and after browsing this sub a little i learned that quite a lot of similar sounds in ukranian and russian are in fact pronounced differently. However, while playing stalker 2 i noticed that sometimes the pronunciation was identical to the point that i forgot that it was ukranian and other times i felt as if actors spoke with russian accents. That wasn't always the case tho, most of the times their speech sounded totally alien to me, completely unfamiliar, ukranian news sounds nothing like russian to me too. Is it just me being used to one language, or maybe it is dialectal differences or did they occasionally use russian in the dub? I found nothing regarding this on the internet, so yeah, that's probably just me?

Чи в чомусь іншому причина?

I'm russian, that's my first day learning ukranian.

And I've already jumpef on the 35 unit of 2nd section. That's the last unit of the whole goddamn course.

Let's say... I'm impresed

Hi, I'm a native Spanish speaker, a B2+ English speaker and I really want to learn Ukrainian, but I don't really know how. When I started learning English I wasn't really paying attention of what helped me the most, and some-how the English just... spawn in my head? Of course I would watch and listen to a lot of things in English, but as a completely begginer in Ukrainian I don't really know how to start. Currently I'm making my way into the alphabet, and learning a few words, like Кіт, Кошенята, and stuff, or my friends name, Крістіна, but I'm block. Whats next? Try to learn simple daily life words? Any recommendations? (Also, stuff in Ukrainian would be a blessing to)

I'm interested in opinions as to how difficult it would be for a native English speaker who is proficient in Russian to learn Ukrainian. Also interested in any recommended resources. Thank you.

я українець але в дитинстві (у три роки) я переїхав до італії і тому я забув українську мову (а я її знав на той час) і останнім часом я хочу знову почати говорити на ньому тим більше я знаю російську і від цього мені стане легше його вчити але все-таки... порадьте мені якийсь легкий/швидкий спосіб вивчити його

Hi everyone,

I'm writing hoping to hear from others in this situation or Ukrainians who learned English later in life.

When I was young, maybe around 8 or 9, there was a girl from Ukraine who went to my school. This was my first real crush and we spent a lot of time together. In this time, she taught me "Ukrainian" (which as an adult i realize it was a mix of Ukrainian and Russian as her family was from Eastern Ukraine) but the language never stuck for me even though it was (and still is) the only one I've been interested in learning. So, she sparked this interest in me that I've never been able to pursue because I'm not Ukrainian and most Eastern Europeans in my town were Russian and Moldovan, neither of which i was particularly interested in.

So, now I'm in my 20s and there are many Ukrainians in my area who don't speak English, so they can't teach me. I only have experience with the Latin alphabet, and I'm completely lost on Cyrillic text. The only resources i can find to learn the very basics at my level are children's books and as you probably know aren't the most engaging ways to learn for a person my age.

If you learned English at an older age, how did you do it? Was it hard to adjust to a new alphabet? Are there any programs you used to get started? Lastly, is it too late for me to learn? I feel like immersion would be the best for me but i don't really have that opportunity. I'd like to visit Ukraine some day, or even live there, but that won't be an option for a long time and I'd like to have the basics down by then anyways.

Native English speakers who learned, what are some resources or lessons that are worth the money? I'm apprehensive to find a tutor since I'm not sure if it'll be worth the money.

Thanks in advance, Slava Ukraini

Thank you all for taking the time to read this post. It's also about the culture of Ukraine, how to live in Ukraine, and equally importantly, the values, hopes and dreams that you stand for Ukraine. Please let me know if any of the content is inappropriate.

I am a student from Hong Kong, and it all began with a conversation I had with a friend who has been deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine since the war started. An idea that really struck me was that, he told me the Ukrainian people are trying their best to live normal lives despite the war.

After watching the movie '20 Days in Mariupol', recommended by this friend (along with Winter on Fire years ago), I felt inspired by both the Ukrainians and my friend's experience. This led me to create a small project titled "How to Live a Normal Life" for a counselling course at university.

This is an invitation to some of you to participate in online interviews.

The aim was to speak with you who are suffering around the world, initially focusing on Ukrainians. My curiosity lies in understanding how you respond to hardships—maybe from loss of family and friends, displacement, sense of dignity and justice, and so much more... I still believe in the values, beliefs, and hopes that help you persevere and live.

Even in the face of adversity, people are not merely passive receivers of their circumstances but uphold precious qualities that enable them to survive, live, and fight for a different future. I hope that those who share similar feelings can be inspired by these hopes and values and find their own paths forward (In Ukraine, or other parts of the world). Perhaps, through knowing some of the stories, even in difficult circumstances, we can all learn to live differently in a more collective way.

Thank you once again for your time. I hope you are all safe, both physically and mentally.

Justice may be delayed, but it will not be denied.

Привіт, я не українець але маю українське походження тому намагаюсь розмовляти українською.

Скажіть мені будь ласка яке слово більш правильне тому що я багато разів бачив дві форми: самотність чи самітність?

Introducing Logoprimus: A new web application for Ukrainian grammar (public beta)

I have been learning Ukrainian as a third foreign language for several years. As an avid user of digital learning resources, I have always been bothered by the fact that existing apps for Ukrainian focus mainly on vocabulary training and often neglect the topic of grammar.

Based on my needs and with the help of my girlfriend, I developed a web application that focuses specifically on Ukrainian grammar. The app is designed to help learners understand and practise grammar. Logoprimus is not a complete language course, but a supporting tool that can be used in combination with other resources.

What does Logoprimus currently offer?

• A English course about Ukrainian nouns and cases.
• Short and easy lessons: Simply structured lessons, each of which can be completed in about 10-15 minutes.
• Exercises: Practice the different cases with randomised exercises.

Logoprimus is still in the early stages of development and the content is limited to nouns and cases. If there is enough interest, the course will be extended to other grammar topics. At the moment the course consists mainly of multiple-choice exercises, so that it can be used without a Ukrainian keyboard. (However, free-text exercises for advanced learners are planned for the future).

Sign up for free, try the app and give us your feedback so we can improve it.

so if you were to add the literal meaning of до побачення and emphasised it with a phrase that follows with to the speaker saying it as untill our next date, would a native understand it like that, eg до побачення, якщо у нас є один

Sharing my success story: I've just received my TELC Ukrainian B2 exam results! :} I got full marks in Speaking and Writing!! Now that I can officially study and work in Ukrainian, I guess it's no longer embarrassing to say "I've learned it". Hopefully, the post will be useful for some, probably esp for Russian speakers

Background info:
I was born and raised in Siberia, and now I live in Germany. I've learned German & English up to C1-C2 levels — this past experience definitely helped. I know that some Russians can intuitively understand Ukrainian, but I wasn’t one of them. At best, I could recognize 6-7 words out of 10 in a sentence, but the overall meaning often escaped me. I'd say these languages r ~70% similar, so like Dutch & German or Italian & Portuguese.

Why did I start learning?
Ukrainian is my heritage language, I'm half Ukrainian. Though my father speaks it, I was never taught the language. I visited our family in the West Ukraine as a child but I only spoke Russian and didn't understand anything around me.
Still, I always dreamed of knowing the language of my roots, my family.

How did I learn?
In mid-2023, I began self-studying with a textbook "Г.М. Лесная Украинский язык для стран СНГ" which I found online, It's specifically made for Russian speakers. I covered about one chapter per day and memorized every single word. I finished the entire book in 1-2 months.

The textbook also included poems by Ukrainian classics, so I ended up learning words like "stork" or "willow" before I even knew how to name the months or days of the week haha, it gives many rare words

After about 1-2 months, I could have full conversations with my friends on general topics and had learned all the main cases, tenses, and expressions. By then, I had memorized around 1,200 purely Ukrainian words(not counting those similar to Russian). I would describe my level at that point as a shaky B1.

After that, I stopped "actively studying" and just immersed myself—watching TV shows, YouTube documentaries, listening to music, and talking to people, reinforcing everything I had learned. This went on for 1.5 years.

What was difficult?
・Stresses(word accents). I read a lot but didn’t listen much, so I kept messing up the stress in words. To this day, my stress patterns have a mind of their own and make native speakers cringe. E.g. речЕння instead of рЕчення
・Grammar (all of it). Ukrainian additionally has 1 case and 2 tenses more compared to Russian, so that was new. I was surprised it has a rare Past Perfect(plusquamperfect) tense("я був зробив"). Verb conjugations aren’t exactly similar(e.g., ты ешь = ти їси, он готовит = він готує), verbs are overall hard, I had to learn how to conjugate from scratch.
・The months. Unlike most European languages, Ukrainians don’t use Latin-based month names (February in ENG, Février in FR, Február in Hungarian, etc.). Instead, they have Slavic names: січень, лютий, березень, квітень, etc. Remembering abstract words in the right order was hard

Conclusion
Since I’m a native speaker of another East Slavic language, learning Ukrainian obv wouldn't take as long as German and English. Imo any Russian native can reach a "broken conversational" level in 1-3 months. But speaking eloquently and correctly — that’s a lifelong journey.

In my opinion, Ukrainian is made entirely of exceptions. The grammar is insanely complicated. As a Russian speaker, I can guess the right case, verb form, or exception maybe 4 times out of 5. But that 1 out of 5 still gets me. So yeah, the samurai has no goal — only the path!

The Exam
I could probably pass C1, but I only found TELC B2 Ukrainian exam. It costs $50, lasts 3 hours, and follows a structure similar to IELTS/TOEFL: reading three texts, writing three texts, listening, and speaking. The topics were mainly science and sociology-related.

Still, I’m beyond happy, esp w the full marks for speaking & writing. I called my dad and told him in Ukrainian "Hey, I’m fluent now—even got an official certificate!" He was so shocked he almost jumped for joy. He said, "If your grandfather can see you from heaven speaking like this, he must be bursting with pride and happiness! If only he could hear you now!"(My grandfather was the last native speaker in our family.)

Wishing you all success in your own journeys! Maybe this post will inspire someone to learn their heritage language and Ukrainian specifically. It’s normal for languages to fade away with migration and generational shifts, but I decided the story wouldn’t end with me  

Besides Colloquial Ukrainian, what series of textbooks could help me in the same way (with vocabulary lists, exercises, grammar and reading).

Can you list me some books that goes from A1 to C2?

Beginner here. I'm having trouble pronouncing И and Й. Duolingo lists the Englified letter as both "y". Any tips? Is there an English word that is pronounced the same as И and Й? For Example: ж - is like pleasure.

Hi, I found an amazing dress that turned out to be a traditional Ukrainian embroidery, and I am wondering if it would be ok to wear it?

https://preview.redd.it/dye9ogw00yfe1.png?width=187&format=png&auto=webp&s=55f2cafc26972c2178ae65d77769df6a72357af4

https://preview.redd.it/83e05tw00yfe1.png?width=187&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec6ae60e79f32f6b2193a5a2756197567a93a4a4

I'm an absolute beginner. I want to know how to pronounce Bce, as in vse ha-razd. Thanks very much.

Looking for books (novels/fiction) to ship to the US to read without paying an arm and a leg. Has anyone found good places to order from?

Hey everyone learning Ukraine for a little bit over a year and currently on B1 level. Are people here who studied to B2 level and could explain how difficult the jump is and how much learning effort is involved in it?
I'm assuming it would take the same amount of time approx. if I stay consistently like it was for me to go from A1 to B1 or do I have a misconception here?

As in which root verbs have the widest variety of prefixes that create derivative verbs with useful meanings or root verbs that maybe don’t have a ton of distinct derivative verbs but the ones it does have are very important to memorize so you don’t confuse them (like Увімкнути/вимкнути).

The most basic one I think is obviously йти because if you understand its prefixes then you understand pretty much all motion verbs prefixes. And then also ходити for a similar reason but виходити and підходити are a must. Also for знайти and знаходити(ся).

Outside of those I would think:

Брати/взяти/бирати

Пустити/пускати

Мінити/мінювати

Вести/водити

Нести/носити

Гадати

йняти/ймати if I can call that one

Тримати/тримувати

Гладити/гладати

Кидати/кинути

Дати/давати

Тягти/Тягнути (maybe less important but has a lot of descriptive forms)

Тиснути

відомити/відомлювати

Думати

Творити/творювати

Просити

I’m sure there are a lot of other more important ones but these are the onces that came to my head. There are also more basic verbs that are more important to learn but don’t have all that many distinct meanings like їсти and робити and бачити, though if they have more forms that you think are important than please mention like how бачити has вибачити.

I created a video where show these two sounds. Check it! https://youtube.com/shorts/tCZ8v4zl6nc

Коли мав в колекції диск, та після численних переїздів він кудись зник. Мо в кого є і готовий хоча б цифрою поділитись?

(Я кілька пісень нашкрябав десь на mp3 звалищах, але якість там така собі, і воно все не повноцінне)

Hello! We have funding for a podcasting project that aims to highlight all things Ukraine for western audiences. I'm looking for theme music from a Ukrainian artist who will allow me to license their music, but because this is a charitable project I don't have an infinite amount of money to spend (it can cost thousands to license a single song), and we'd prefer to highlight smaller artists who could benefit from the visibility, and of course Ukrainian artists as opposed to random stock music.

Does anyone know anyone that we could approach, or know of music that would make for good intro/theme music?

I once heard a phrase like "you ate a lot of shit as a kid", not sure of the exact wording, but definitely something along those lines. It is a kind of Ukrainian phrase that apparently means I have a lot of luck / or am a lucky person in general.

Does anyone know this (or a similar phrase) and what would be the correct Ukrainian version?

I would be glad if someone could help me or point me in the right direction where I could look for something like this.

I am teaching a lesson in English that discusses bullying but have a small number of students from Ukraine who are learning English and not quite understanding the concepts. If anyone is open to helping with this, the concepts I want to translate are:

- The person doing bullying behaviour (vs calling someone "a bully")

- The person who is the target of the bullying

- The person who is a bystander while bullying is happening (someone who sees it but doesn't act)

Also explaining that bullying behaviours are "when someone repeatedly and intentionally tries to hurt or humiliate another person. It can be physical, such as hitting, pushing, or tripping someone, or it can be verbal, such as calling someone names, spreading rumors, or making fun of someone's appearance, religion, or culture" (from BullyingCanada.ca).

This website has an auto-translate option that says this: "Булінг – це коли хтось постійно навмисно намагається завдати болю чи принизити іншу людину. Воно може бути фізичним, як-от удари, штовхання чи спотикання когось, або воно може бути словесним, як-от обзивати когось поганими іменами, поширювати чутки чи висміювати чиюсь зовнішність, релігію чи культуру" but I wanted to double check if that makes sense to someone who speaks Ukrainian! Any help greatly appreciated.