Counting to ten in Ukrainian
One to ten, for prices, platforms, rooms and how many beers. Play the ten Ukrainian words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Ukrainian phrases in this lesson
- Одинo-DYN
- One
- Дваdva
- Two
- Триtry
- Three
- Чотириcho-TY-ry
- Four
- П'ятьpyat
- Five
- Шістьsheest
- Six
- Сімseem
- Seven
- ВісімVEE-seem
- Eight
- Дев'ятьDEH-vyat
- Nine
- ДесятьDE-syat
- Ten
The masculine form, used for counting and standalone use. Before feminine nouns it becomes "одна" and before neuter nouns "одне". For ordering and pointing, the gender shifts but два fingers always helps.
Два for masculine and neuter nouns, "дві" (dvi) for feminine. After два, три, чотири the noun takes the genitive singular. From five onward the noun takes the genitive plural. It sounds complicated but locals understand any attempt.
Same form for all genders, a relief after one and two. Numbers from three onward are mercifully consistent in their base form, though the case of the following noun still changes.
Stress falls on TY. Five onward: п'ять (pyat), шість (shist), сім (sim), вісім (VI-sim), дев'ять (DEV-yat). The apostrophe in п'ять and дев'ять marks a hard separation between consonant and vowel, a feature of Ukrainian.
The apostrophe in Ukrainian marks a hard sign between п and я, making the я sound fully open and "hard." This is a distinctive feature of Ukrainian Cyrillic writing that Russian does not use the same way.
Twenty is двадцять (DVAD-tsyat), thirty is тридцять (TRYD-tsyat). Hundreds: сто (sto), двісті (DVIS-ti), триста (TRY-sta). A thousand is тисяча (TY-sya-cha).