LingoflyVerbs in Ukrainian
11 words in Ukrainian on the topic “verbs”: хочу (khochu) — I want, пити (pyty) — to drink, їсти (yisty) — to eat, люблю (liubliu) — I love.
11 words on the topic
- хочуkhochuI wantFrom khotity. The thing wanted follows directly — no "to", no preposition: khochu kavyu, "I want coffee".
- питиpytyto drinkThe present tense wears an apostrophe at every step: piyu, piyesh, piye. Vypity is "to drink up, finish" — the completed counterpart.
- їстиyistyto eatThe letter yi is a two-sound "yee": "yees-ty". Present: yim, yisy, yist. And "there is" in the sense of existing is a different word entirely — ye.
- люблюliubliuI loveFrom lyubity. Works for food and for people equally: lyublyu kavu, lyublyu Kyiv — one verb, all kinds of love.
- ітиityto go (on foot)Two syllables, i-TY; after a vowel it shrinks to yty: treba yty. Present: idu, idesh, ide — the i leads every step.
- їхатиyikhatyto 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.
- бутиbutyto beIn the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude.
- матиmatyto haveWhere English says "I have", Ukrainian says "I have": ya maiu chas, maiu brata. In old texts maty also means "mother" — do not be startled in songs.
- житиzhytyto livePresent tense: zhyvu, zhyvesh, zhyve. "I live in Kyiv" works with or without a preposition — both ways of saying it are correct.
- працюватиpratsiuvatyto workPresent: pratsiuiu, pratsiuesh, pratsiuite. Do not reach for robyty — that one means "to do, to make", a different verb with a different job.
- вчитиvchytyto study, to teachOne verb for both studying a subject and teaching it: vchu ukrainsku — "I study Ukrainian". Context and endings tell who is doing it.
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How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
What is worth knowing about these words
хочу (khochu) — I want. From khotity. The thing wanted follows directly — no "to", no preposition: khochu kavyu, "I want coffee".
пити (pyty) — to drink. The present tense wears an apostrophe at every step: piyu, piyesh, piye. Vypity is "to drink up, finish" — the completed counterpart.
їсти (yisty) — to eat. The letter yi is a two-sound "yee": "yees-ty". Present: yim, yisy, yist. And "there is" in the sense of existing is a different word entirely — ye.
люблю (liubliu) — I love. From lyubity. Works for food and for people equally: lyublyu kavu, lyublyu Kyiv — one verb, all kinds of love.
Test yourself
Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “I want” in Ukrainian?
From khotity. The thing wanted follows directly — no "to", no preposition: khochu kavyu, "I want coffee".
- How do you say “to have” in Ukrainian?
Where English says "I have", Ukrainian says "I have": ya maiu chas, maiu brata. In old texts maty also means "mother" — do not be startled in songs.
- How do you say “I love” in Ukrainian?
From lyubity. Works for food and for people equally: lyublyu kavu, lyublyu Kyiv — one verb, all kinds of love.
- How do you say “to study, to teach” in Ukrainian?
One verb for both studying a subject and teaching it: vchu ukrainsku — "I study Ukrainian". Context and endings tell who is doing it.
- How do you say “to be” in Ukrainian?
In the present it shrinks to one frozen word, ye — and even that gets dropped, so "I am a student" needs no "am". The future behaves: budu, budesh, bude.
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
I want, I can, I am going, I know. The verb holds a sentence together: a few of the most frequent ones cover more everyday talk than a long list of nouns.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- Study spread over days wins not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “I want” in Ukrainian?
«хочу» (khochu), read “khochu”. From khotity. The thing wanted follows directly — no "to", no preposition: khochu kavyu, "I want coffee". It is one of 11 words in the set “verbs” — the rest are in the table above.
How many verbs do you need to start?
The whole set on this page is 11 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.