автовокзал
“автовокзал” — bus station in Ukrainian. Noun, level A1, topic — buildings and premises. Built from avto plus vokzal — and vokzal itself comes from the English place name Vauxhall, of all things. The avto part tells you buses leave here, not trains. In a live sentence: “Автовокзал за два квартали” — The bus leaves from the bus station. One of 13 words in the set “buildings and premises” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | автовокзал |
| Translation | bus station |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Built from avto plus vokzal — and vokzal itself comes from the English place name Vauxhall, of all things. The avto part tells you buses leave here, not trains.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Автовокзал за два кварталиThe bus leaves from the bus station
Nearby words: buildings and premises
Where to go and what is done there. These words are read off a sign more often than they are spoken.
- вокзалrailway stationThe Kyiv one is labeled Zaliznychnyi vokzal — "railway station", from zaliznytsya, "railway". The word vokzal covers train stations only.
- крамницяshopUkrainian's own word for a shop, from kram, "goods". The borrowed mahazyn is equally common — two doors, same shop.
- аптекаpharmacyThe green cross on the sign is the same worldwide. The after-hours one is cherhova apteka — "duty pharmacy", posted on every other door.
- пристаньpierWhere small boats tie up. Its partner prychal is the actual mooring spot — the pier is the whole structure, the prychal is where the rope goes.
- обмінний пунктexchange officeFrom obmin, "exchange", with an i in the stem. In speech people shorten the whole phrase to one word, obminnyk — the currency window on the corner.
- зоопаркzooZoo plus park, exactly the two Greek roots English stitched together in "zoological park". You can read the whole word off its parts.
- циркcircusSame Latin root as English circus — the ring. For "we are going to the circus" Ukrainian says do tsyrku, do plus a "of" form-like form.
- пожежна частинаfire stationPozhezha is a fire — note the zh at the end. A firefighter is pozhezhnyk, built from the same noun, so the whole rescue family shares one root.
- автомийкаcar washFrom myty, "to wash", with avto in front — "car-wash place". The y right after m is the Ukrainian vowel where you might expect an o.
- туристична агенціяtravel agencyRecognizable on sight: ahentsiia is the borrowed "agency", taken a syllable shorter than English spells it. A tour agent stays ahent in speech; the two-word phrase names the office.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “buildings and premises”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “bus station” in Ukrainian?
Built from avto plus vokzal — and vokzal itself comes from the English place name Vauxhall, of all things. The avto part tells you buses leave here, not trains.
- How do you say “circus” in Ukrainian?
Same Latin root as English circus — the ring. For "we are going to the circus" Ukrainian says do tsyrku, do plus a "of" form-like form.
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Ukrainian?
The green cross on the sign is the same worldwide. The after-hours one is cherhova apteka — "duty pharmacy", posted on every other door.
- How do you say “travel agency” in Ukrainian?
Recognizable on sight: ahentsiia is the borrowed "agency", taken a syllable shorter than English spells it. A tour agent stays ahent in speech; the two-word phrase names the office.
- How do you say “zoo” in Ukrainian?
Zoo plus park, exactly the two Greek roots English stitched together in "zoological park". You can read the whole word off its parts.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “bus station” in Ukrainian?
«автовокзал». In a live sentence: “Автовокзал за два квартали” — The bus leaves from the bus station. Noun, level A1, from the set “buildings and premises”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Built from avto plus vokzal — and vokzal itself comes from the English place name Vauxhall, of all things. The avto part tells you buses leave here, not trains. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.