Lingoflyце спірно
- це спірноtse spirnothat is debatable
“це спірно” (tse spirno) — that is debatable in Ukrainian. Phrase, level B1. From spir, a dispute, with an i in the middle. Same nest as sperchatysia, to argue, and superechka, a squabble — the disagreement family in three words. In a live sentence: “Це спірно, я б подумав ще” (Tse spirno, ya b podumav shche) — That is debatable, I would think it over. Written with the characters ц, е, с, п, і (i), р, н, о (o). A word from the everyday Ukrainian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | це спірно (tse spirno) |
| Read in Latin letters | tse spirno |
| Translation | that is debatable |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
From spir, a dispute, with an i in the middle. Same nest as sperchatysia, to argue, and superechka, a squabble — the disagreement family in three words.
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 “that is debatable” in Ukrainian?
«це спірно» (tse spirno), read “tse spirno”. In a live sentence: “Це спірно, я б подумав ще” (Tse spirno, ya b podumav shche) — That is debatable, I would think it over. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ц, е, с, п, і (i), р, н, о (o).
How is “це спірно” (tse spirno) written in Latin letters?
tse spirno. 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?
From spir, a dispute, with an i in the middle. Same nest as sperchatysia, to argue, and superechka, a squabble — the disagreement family in three words. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.