бути
“бути” — to be in Ukrainian. Verb, level A1, topic — verbs. In the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude. In a live sentence: “Він хоче бути лікарем” — I want to be home. One of 11 words in the set “verbs” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | бути |
| Translation | to be |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
In the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude.
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.
- Він хоче бути лікаремI want to be home
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. Twenty verbs cover more everyday sentences than two hundred nouns.
- хочуI wantFrom khotity. The thing wanted follows directly — no "to", no preposition: khochu kavyu, "I want coffee".
- питиto drinkThe present tense wears an apostrophe at every step: piyu, piyesh, piye. Vypity is "to drink up, finish" — the completed counterpart.
- їстиto eatThe letter yi is a two-sound "yee": "yees-ty". Present: yim, yisy, yist. And "there is" in the sense of existing is a different word entirely — ye.
- люблюI loveFrom lyubity. Works for food and for people equally: lyublyu kavu, lyublyu Kyiv — one verb, all kinds of love.
- ітиto go (on foot)One syllable, no vowel in front: ytu is wrong, yty is right. Present: ydu, ydesh, yde — the y leads every step.
- їхатиto go (by vehicle)For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely.
- матиto haveWhere English says "I have", Ukrainian says "I have": ya maiu chas, maiu brata. In old texts maty also means "mother" — do not be startled in songs.
- житиto livePresent tense: zhyvu, zhyvesh, zhyve. "I live in Kyiv" works with or without a preposition — both ways of saying it are correct.
- працюватиto workPresent: pratsiuiu, pratsiuesh, pratsiuite. Do not reach for robyty — that one means "to do, to make", a different verb with a different job.
- вчитиto study, to teachOne verb for both studying a subject and teaching it: vchu ukrainsku — "I study Ukrainian". Context and endings tell who is doing it.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to be” in Ukrainian?
In the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude.
- How do you say “to have” in Ukrainian?
Where English says "I have", Ukrainian says "I have": ya maiu chas, maiu brata. In old texts maty also means "mother" — do not be startled in songs.
- How do you say “to eat” in Ukrainian?
The letter yi is a two-sound "yee": "yees-ty". Present: yim, yisy, yist. And "there is" in the sense of existing is a different word entirely — ye.
- How do you say “to study, to teach” in Ukrainian?
One verb for both studying a subject and teaching it: vchu ukrainsku — "I study Ukrainian". Context and endings tell who is doing it.
- How do you say “to go (by vehicle)” in Ukrainian?
For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely.
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 “to be” in Ukrainian?
«бути». In a live sentence: “Він хоче бути лікарем” — I want to be home. Verb, level A1, from the set “verbs”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
In the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.