затримка
“затримка” — delay in Ukrainian. Noun, level A1, topic — transport. From trymaty, "to hold" — a delay is a "holding". No d after the z; the word is shorter than it feels. In a live sentence: “Затримка двадцять хвилин” — The train has a twenty-minute delay. One of 16 words in the set “transport” in the Ukrainian course.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | затримка |
| Translation | delay |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From trymaty, "to hold" — a delay is a "holding". No d after the z; the word is shorter than it feels.
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.
- Затримка двадцять хвилинThe train has a twenty-minute delay
Nearby words: transport
Bus, metro, taxi, stop, station. These are words you need to recognize in writing — off a departure board and off a sign.
- автобусbusThe international word, wearing local stress. Its relatives tramvai and trolleybus ride the same streets with the same passport.
- їхатиto go (by vehicle)For anything on wheels or rails. The present tense opens with the special ii-letter: iidu, iidesh, iide. Walking gets a different verb entirely.
- вокзалrailway stationThe Kyiv one is labeled Zaliznychnyi vokzal — "railway station", from zaliznytsya, "railway". The word vokzal covers train stations only.
- поїздtrainThe letter yi is "yee": "poyizd". A folksier word potyah is also heard, but poizd is the standard one for timetables.
- таксіtaxiThe international word again. You can hail it with an app or with one shouted word at the curb — both work equally well.
- метроmetroThe word everyone shares. In the Kyiv metro you arrange to meet bilya metro, "by the metro", at the exit — a classic meeting point.
- зупинкаstop (transport)From zupunytysia, "to stop". The word does all the stopping work a schedule could ask for.
- пасажирpassengerOne s where you might write two. A woman passenger is pasazhyrka — the suffix does the gender, as usual.
- сидінняseatTwo i's in a row: sydinnia. From sydity, "to sit" — a seat is a "sitting", which is fair enough.
- порученьhandrailThe bar you hold: trymatysia za poruchen — "hold onto the handrail", with trymaty, "to hold", doing the holding.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “transport”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “delay” in Ukrainian?
From trymaty, "to hold" — a delay is a "holding". No d after the z; the word is shorter than it feels.
- How do you say “stop (transport)” in Ukrainian?
From zupunytysia, "to stop". The word does all the stopping work a schedule could ask for.
- How do you say “railway station” in Ukrainian?
The Kyiv one is labeled Zaliznychnyi vokzal — "railway station", from zaliznytsya, "railway". The word vokzal covers train stations only.
- How do you say “handrail” in Ukrainian?
The bar you hold: trymatysia za poruchen — "hold onto the handrail", with trymaty, "to hold", doing the holding.
- How do you say “metro” in Ukrainian?
The word everyone shares. In the Kyiv metro you arrange to meet bilya metro, "by the metro", at the exit — a classic meeting point.
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 “delay” in Ukrainian?
«затримка». In a live sentence: “Затримка двадцять хвилин” — The train has a twenty-minute delay. Noun, level A1, from the set “transport”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From trymaty, "to hold" — a delay is a "holding". No d after the z; the word is shorter than it feels. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.