свій
“свій” — one's own in Ukrainian. Pronoun, level A1, topic — pronouns. Compulsory for things belonging to the subject: vzyav svii klyuch — he took his OWN key; yoho klyuch would mean someone else's. Declines like mii. In a live sentence: “Візьми свій ключ” — I have my own key. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | свій |
| Translation | one's own |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Compulsory for things belonging to the subject: vzyav svii klyuch — he took his OWN key; yoho klyuch would mean someone else's. Declines like mii.
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.
- Візьми свій ключI have my own key
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- яIOften dropped: the verb ending already names the doer — rozumiyu alone means "I understand". Keep ia only for emphasis, like Spanish yo.
- тиyou (informal)The letter y here is a tight "ih" sound, closer to "ti". Like French tu or Spanish tu — one friend, never a stranger.
- виyou (formal)One word for polite "you" and for "you all" — the same double duty as in French vous. Written with a capital V in formal letters.
- мійmyChanges with gender: mii droug "my friend", moya kava "my coffee", moye more "my sea". Like Spanish mi/mi/mi — but Ukrainian has three shapes.
- вінheSaid "vin". The ending letter i takes the softness that other languages write as a separate sign.
- вонаsheThe plural is vony, "they" — one word for any group, no matter the gender. English "they" works the same way.
- миweSaid "mih" — the letter y inside is that tight vowel again. Two look-alikes to keep apart: my "we" and ty "you".
- вониtheySaid "voneh". The plural covers everyone at once — men, women, things — exactly like English "they".
- твійyour (informal)Declines like an adjective through the genders: tvii, tvoia, tvoie — the same row as mii, "my". The long i in the closed syllable is the spelling to watch.
- нашourThe gender shows at the end: nash "our", nasha, nashe. Same shape you would guess from a hundred European cousins.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one's own” in Ukrainian?
Compulsory for things belonging to the subject: vzyav svii klyuch — he took his OWN key; yoho klyuch would mean someone else's. Declines like mii.
- How do you say “we” in Ukrainian?
Said "mih" — the letter y inside is that tight vowel again. Two look-alikes to keep apart: my "we" and ty "you".
- How do you say “you (formal)” in Ukrainian?
One word for polite "you" and for "you all" — the same double duty as in French vous. Written with a capital V in formal letters.
- How do you say “our” in Ukrainian?
The gender shows at the end: nash "our", nasha, nashe. Same shape you would guess from a hundred European cousins.
- How do you say “she” in Ukrainian?
The plural is vony, "they" — one word for any group, no matter the gender. English "they" works the same way.
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's own” in Ukrainian?
«свій». In a live sentence: “Візьми свій ключ” — I have my own key. Pronoun, level A1, from the set “pronouns”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Compulsory for things belonging to the subject: vzyav svii klyuch — he took his OWN key; yoho klyuch would mean someone else's. Declines like mii. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.