зачісуватися
“зачісуватися” — to comb one's hair in Ukrainian. Verb, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. The prefix is za-, on chesaty, to comb. A hairstyle is zachiska — the verb, the noun and the morning routine share one obvious family. In a live sentence: “Вона зачісується перед дзеркалом” — She combs her hair in front of the mirror. One of 11 words in the set “everyday life and routine” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | зачісуватися |
| Translation | to comb one's hair |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The prefix is za-, on chesaty, to comb. A hairstyle is zachiska — the verb, the noun and the morning routine share one obvious family.
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.
- Вона зачісується перед дзеркаломShe combs her hair in front of the mirror
Nearby words: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- працюватиto workPresent: pratsiuiu, pratsiuesh, pratsiuite. Do not reach for robyty — that one means "to do, to make", a different verb with a different job.
- прокидатисяto wake upFrom kydaty, to throw: waking is throwing sleep off yourself. English builds its verb from a different picture, but the morning struggle is the same.
- вставатиto get upThe same root as "to stand up". Its partner is sidaty, "to sit down" — you get up and sit down all day with these two.
- умиватисяto wash one's faceSpelled with a y in the middle, built on myty, to wash — the same root does all the work. English splits face-washing from hand-washing; here one verb leans toward the face.
- голитисяto shave (habitually)From holii, "bare": to shave is literally to make yourself bare-faced. The razor keeps its borrowed name, brytva, but the verb is the language's own.
- одягатисяto get dressedWith a ya-glide in the stem, from odiah, clothing. Where English slides on an e, this course keeps the fuller vowel — one more spelling to trust.
- роздягатисяto get undressedThe mirror image of getting dressed, with the taking-apart prefix roz- in front. The place where you do it has its own noun: rozdiahalnia, the changing room.
- сідатиto sit downSidaite, bud laska — "have a seat, please" — at home and on the bus alike. Plain.sydivty... no: sydity without a prefix is "to sit", the state, not the action.
- лягатиto lie downPlain and short, with no reflexive tail at all — the longer lying-down verb of English grammar simply has no counterpart here. Liazhi spat: go lie down, time for bed.
- спочиватиto rest (lying down)From spokii, calm and stillness: to rest is to settle into stillness, lying down. For resting in general — a break, a holiday — the other verb vidpochyvaty does the job.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “everyday life and routine”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to comb one's hair” in Ukrainian?
The prefix is za-, on chesaty, to comb. A hairstyle is zachiska — the verb, the noun and the morning routine share one obvious family.
- How do you say “to get undressed” in Ukrainian?
The mirror image of getting dressed, with the taking-apart prefix roz- in front. The place where you do it has its own noun: rozdiahalnia, the changing room.
- How do you say “to get up” in Ukrainian?
The same root as "to stand up". Its partner is sidaty, "to sit down" — you get up and sit down all day with these two.
- How do you say “to rest (lying down)” in Ukrainian?
From spokii, calm and stillness: to rest is to settle into stillness, lying down. For resting in general — a break, a holiday — the other verb vidpochyvaty does the job.
- How do you say “to get dressed” in Ukrainian?
With a ya-glide in the stem, from odiah, clothing. Where English slides on an e, this course keeps the fuller vowel — one more spelling to trust.
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 comb one's hair” in Ukrainian?
«зачісуватися». In a live sentence: “Вона зачісується перед дзеркалом” — She combs her hair in front of the mirror. Verb, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The prefix is za-, on chesaty, to comb. A hairstyle is zachiska — the verb, the noun and the morning routine share one obvious family. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.