How much, and in which case
A quantity word drags its own noun form behind it, and the rule is stricter here than the English of lets on. After kilkist, bilshist, chastyna, tretyna the noun takes the plural of form: kilkist liudei, bilshist holosiv, tretyna uchniv. For example: “На зустріч прийшло багато людей” — A lot of people came to the meeting. A rule from the Ukrainian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
A quantity word drags its own noun form behind it, and the rule is stricter here than the English of lets on. After kilkist, bilshist, chastyna, tretyna the noun takes the plural of form: kilkist liudei, bilshist holosiv, tretyna uchniv.
The amount words bahato, malo, povno, obmal pull the same form: bahato roboty, malo chasu, povno liudei, obmal hroshei. The naming form after them is impossible.
Numbers run two rails. Dva, try, chotyry take the plural naming form: dva metry, try dni, chotyry razy. From piat up it is the plural of form: piat metriv, desiat dniv, sto raziv.
And pivtora, pivtory: with masculine and neuter nouns say pivtora roku, with feminine pivtory hodyny. The noun after them stands in the singular of form.
Table
| in front of the noun | the case | example |
|---|---|---|
| kilkist, tretyna | plural, of form | kilkist dniv |
| bahato, malo, povno | plural, of form | malo chasu |
| dva, try, chotyry | plural, naming form | try dni |
| piat and up | plural, of form | piat dniv |
By example
- На зустріч прийшло багато людейA lot of people came to the meeting
- Кількість заявок перевищила сотнюThe number of applications passed a hundred
- Довелося чекати півтори годиниWe had to wait an hour and a half
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Bahato liudei: the case after quantity words?
A quantity word drags its own noun form behind it, and the rule is stricter here than the English of lets on. After kilkist, bilshist, chastyna, tretyna the noun takes the plural of form: kilkist liudei, bilshist holosiv, tretyna uchniv.
What does it look like in an example sentence Ukrainian?
“На зустріч прийшло багато людей” — A lot of people came to the meeting. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.