Lingoflyпівтора
- півтораpivtoraone and a half
“півтора” (pivtora) — one and a half in Ukrainian. Numeral, level A2. The numeral changes for gender: with masculine and neuter pivtora, with feminine pivtori — pivtory hodyny, "an hour and a half". It is the only numeral that changes for gender this way, and it behaves like "two". In a live sentence: “Чекати довелося півтора року” (Chekaty dovelosia pivtora roku) — We waited an hour and a half. Written with the characters п, і (i), в (v), т, о (o), р, а (a).
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | півтора (pivtora) |
| Read in Latin letters | pivtora |
| Translation | one and a half |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The numeral changes for gender: with masculine and neuter pivtora, with feminine pivtori — pivtory hodyny, "an hour and a half". It is the only numeral that changes for gender this way, and it behaves like "two".
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.
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 and a half” in Ukrainian?
«півтора» (pivtora), read “pivtora”. In a live sentence: “Чекати довелося півтора року” (Chekaty dovelosia pivtora roku) — We waited an hour and a half. Numeral, level A2; written with the characters п, і (i), в (v), т, о (o), р, а (a).
How is “півтора” (pivtora) written in Latin letters?
pivtora. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The numeral changes for gender: with masculine and neuter pivtora, with feminine pivtori — pivtory hodyny, "an hour and a half". It is the only numeral that changes for gender this way, and it behaves like "two". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.