один
“один” — one in Ukrainian. Numeral, level A0, topic — numbers and counting. Agrees with its noun's gender: odyn chay "one tea", odna kava "one coffee", odne moloko "one milk". Three shapes to keep straight. In a live sentence: “Один чай і одна кава” — One tea and one coffee. One of 10 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | один |
| Translation | one |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Agrees with its noun's gender: odyn chay "one tea", odna kava "one coffee", odne moloko "one milk". Three shapes to keep straight.
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.
- Один чай і одна каваOne tea and one coffee
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- дваtwoAfter dva the noun takes a special two-shape: dva braty, "two brothers". Feminine nouns switch the number too: dvi kavy, "two coffees".
- триthreeNouns after try take the same shape as after dva: try khvylyny, "three minutes". From five upward the shape changes again.
- чотириfourNothing in the sound hints at "four" — it simply has to be memorized. Nouns after it behave as after dva and try.
- пʼятьfiveThe apostrophe marks a small y-glide: p-yat. From five on, nouns take a special plural form: piat khvylyn, "five minutes".
- шістьsixSaid "shyst" — that tight i-vowel again. After it the noun form is hryven, exactly as after piat.
- сімsevenOne letter away from simya, "family" — the apostrophe decides which word you are hearing. Both are worth knowing cold.
- вісімeightSaid "visim". Ignore any urge to hear vesna, "spring", inside — the words are unrelated neighbors.
- девʼятьnineThe apostrophe again between v and a: dev-yat. The ordinal "ninth" is devyatiy — same apostrophe, new tail.
- десятьtenReads exactly as spelled, no tricks. A round number — after it you count in tens, and the noun form is the after-five one.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one” in Ukrainian?
Agrees with its noun's gender: odyn chay "one tea", odna kava "one coffee", odne moloko "one milk". Three shapes to keep straight.
- How do you say “eight” in Ukrainian?
Said "visim". Ignore any urge to hear vesna, "spring", inside — the words are unrelated neighbors.
- How do you say “five” in Ukrainian?
The apostrophe marks a small y-glide: p-yat. From five on, nouns take a special plural form: piat khvylyn, "five minutes".
- How do you say “two” in Ukrainian?
After dva the noun takes a special two-shape: dva braty, "two brothers". Feminine nouns switch the number too: dvi kavy, "two coffees".
- How do you say “nine” in Ukrainian?
The apostrophe again between v and a: dev-yat. The ordinal "ninth" is devyatiy — same apostrophe, new tail.
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 “one” in Ukrainian?
«один». In a live sentence: “Один чай і одна кава” — One tea and one coffee. Numeral, level A0, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Agrees with its noun's gender: odyn chay "one tea", odna kava "one coffee", odne moloko "one milk". Three shapes to keep straight. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.