Lingoflyя запізнююся
- я запізнююсяya zapizniuiusiaI am running late
“я запізнююся” (ya zapizniuiusia) — I am running late in Ukrainian. Phrase, level A2. From pizno, late: to make oneself late. Three yu-sounds in a row are not a typo — zapizniuiusia really is spelled that way. In a live sentence: “Я запізнююся на десять хвилин” (Ya zapizniuiusia na desiat khvylyn) — I am running late by ten minutes. Written with the characters я (ya), з (z), а (a), п, і (i), з (z), н, ю, ю, с, я (ya). A word from the everyday Ukrainian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Ukrainian | я запізнююся (ya zapizniuiusia) |
| Read in Latin letters | ya zapizniuiusia |
| Translation | I am running late |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
From pizno, late: to make oneself late. Three yu-sounds in a row are not a typo — zapizniuiusia really is spelled that way.
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 “I am running late” in Ukrainian?
«я запізнююся» (ya zapizniuiusia), read “ya zapizniuiusia”. In a live sentence: “Я запізнююся на десять хвилин” (Ya zapizniuiusia na desiat khvylyn) — I am running late by ten minutes. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters я (ya), з (z), а (a), п, і (i), з (z), н, ю, ю, с, я (ya).
How is “я запізнююся” (ya zapizniuiusia) written in Latin letters?
ya zapizniuiusia. 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 pizno, late: to make oneself late. Three yu-sounds in a row are not a typo — zapizniuiusia really is spelled that way. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.