їхати
“їхати” — to go (by vehicle) in Ukrainian. Verb, level A1, topic — verbs. For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely. In a live sentence: “Ми їдемо до Львова потягом” — We are going to Lviv by train. One of 11 words in the set “verbs” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | їхати |
| Translation | to go (by vehicle) |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely.
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.
- Ми їдемо до Львова потягомWe are going to Lviv by train
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.
- бутиto beIn 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.
- 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 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 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 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 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 go (by vehicle)” in Ukrainian?
«їхати». In a live sentence: “Ми їдемо до Львова потягом” — We are going to Lviv by train. Verb, level A1, from the set “verbs”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.