головна вулиця
“головна вулиця” — main street in Ukrainian. Noun, level A1, topic — buildings and premises. From holova, "head" — the head street, the one that leads the city. The same metaphor English uses in "the head of the road". In a live sentence: “Головна вулиця веде до площі” — All the shops are on the main street. One of 13 words in the set “buildings and premises” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | головна вулиця |
| Translation | main street |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From holova, "head" — the head street, the one that leads the city. The same metaphor English uses in "the head of the road".
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.
- Головна вулиця веде до площіAll the shops are on the main street
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.
- автовокзалbus stationBuilt 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.
- 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.
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 “main street” in Ukrainian?
From holova, "head" — the head street, the one that leads the city. The same metaphor English uses in "the head of the road".
- 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 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 “car wash” in Ukrainian?
From 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.
- How do you say “exchange office” in Ukrainian?
From 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.
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 “main street” in Ukrainian?
«головна вулиця». In a live sentence: “Головна вулиця веде до площі” — All the shops are on the main street. Noun, level A1, from the set “buildings and premises”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From holova, "head" — the head street, the one that leads the city. The same metaphor English uses in "the head of the road". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.