The city and its places in Ukrainian

76 words on the topic

• місто

  misto

  city

  Said "misto" with the tight i. The vowels hop around in other cases: u misti "in the city", mista "of the city".
• вулиця

  vulytsia

  street

  Stress on the first syllable: VU-lytsya. In addresses the word itself is usually dropped — Khreshchatyk, 22 says it all.
• аптека

  apteka

  pharmacy

  The green cross on the sign is the same worldwide. The after-hours one is cherhova apteka — "duty pharmacy", posted on every other door.
• світлофор

  svitlofor

  traffic light

  Svitlo, light, plus for: a light-bearer at the crossing. The red light is chervone svitlo, and the color words are the same everyday ones used elsewhere.
• велосипед

  velosyped

  bicycle

  Two Latin roots in one word: velo, from velox, "fast", plus ped, "foot". You ride it velosypedom — the instrumental ending, not a preposition, does the riding.
• зупинка автобуса

  zupynka avtobusa

  bus stop

  From zupynytysia, to stop: a zupynka is a stopping place. One word covers buses and trams alike — the vehicle is named by the word next to it.
• проїзний квиток

  proiznyi kvytok

  transit pass

  Proiznyi comes from the verb to ride, and kvytok is the everyday word for a ticket. Together: a pass that lets you ride — cheaper than single tickets.
• маршрут

  marshrut

  route

  The international word for a route. The route number is nomer marshrutu — and after numbers you get the usual "of" form.
• пішохідний перехід

  pishokhidnyi perekhid

  crosswalk

  Pishokhid is a pedestrian, from pishky, on foot — the same root as in khodyty pishky, to walk. The striped crossing itself is just zebra, borrowed with the paint.
• затор на дорозі

  zator na dorozi

  traffic jam

  From zatoryty, to clog — streets clog like pipes here. The bouncy cork in a bottle is a different word entirely: korok.
• парковка

  parkovka

  parking

  The international word for parking, plus a local verb: parkuvatysia, to park. The sign Tut ne parkuvaty says do not park here — short and final.
• заправка

  zapravka

  gas station

  One word for filling the car and for filling the soup — zapravka covers both, exactly like English filling station humor. Fuel itself is benzyn, and the price board is the same sad story.
• парк

  park

  park

  The same word as English park, used every weekend. City parks here slope down to the river, and this is the word on every bench and every gate.
• бібліотека

  biblioteka

  library

  Do not mix it with knyharnia, the bookshop: at the library they lend books, at the bookshop they sell them. Mixing the two up is an expensive mistake.
• музей

  muzei

  museum

  The international word. Your ticket in is vkhidnyi kvytok, an entrance ticket — ask for it by those words at the desk.
• театр

  teatr

  theater

  Going to the theater is ity v teatr, with the straightforward direct object after v. An evening institution — the word itself needs no explaining.
• кінотеатр

  kinoteatr

  movie theater

  Kino plus teatr, built exactly like cinema-theater. Tickets have long been bought in the app — the borrowing zastosunok.
• церква

  tserkva

  church

  No soft sign at the end — tserkva, plain and firm. Its forms are predictable: tserkva, u tserkvi, and the word never hides extra letters when it changes.
• стадіон

  stadion

  stadium

  Same word as English, but the stress moves to the end: sta-di-ON. On match day half the city walks there, and you can hear the word from a block away.
• перехрестя

  perekhrestia

  intersection

  From khrest, "cross": the intersection is "the crossing place" — where roads make a cross. A traffic circle is a kruh, and the road sign says just that.
• тротуар

  trotuar

  sidewalk

  A French borrowing, said almost as you expect. The curb has its own separate borrowed name, bordiur.
• проспект

  prospekt

  avenue

  Kyiv runs on prospekts — Prospekt Shevchenka, Prospekt Peremohy — big, wide, numbered by importance. A leafy wide street can also be called a bulvar.
• провулок

  provulok

  lane (side street)

  A small street, in addresses abbreviated to "prov." The old towns are mostly made of them — quiet lanes behind the loud streets.
• набережна

  naberezhna

  embankment

  The riverside promenade: in Kyiv the famous Naberezhna runs along the Dnipro. Evening walks happen there; the word and the ritual arrive together.
• міст

  mist

  bridge

  One letter from misto, "city" — mist is bridge, misto is city, and only the final o separates them on the page. The Kyiv bridges over the Dnipro are its home turf.
• тунель

  tunel

  tunnel

  One vowel shorter than its cousins elsewhere. Before a tunnel you switch on the headlights — and the road sign says tunel, briefly, like tunnels themselves.
• ліхтар

  likhtar

  lantern

  A pocket flashlight is a likhtaryk — the same diminutive suffix that turns a chair into a little chair. Under the streetlight it is bright: pid likhtarem svitlo.
• лава

  lava

  bench

  A short word with a long reach: lava is the park bench, and the same root sits inside the word for a shop counter. Lavka is a close cousin.
• урна для сміття

  urna dlia smittia

  trash can

  Smittia, trash, you already carry out; the street bin is an urna, or a smitnyk in casual speech. One word for the can and the wastebasket.
• водій автобуса

  vodii avtobusa

  bus driver

  From vodyty, "to drive or conduct": a driver is "the one who drives". A woman behind the wheel is a vodiika, and the "of" form needs no preposition: vodiia avtobusa.
• кінцева зупинка

  kintseva zupynka

  last stop

  Made of kinets, "end", plus zupynka, "stop". On the bus they announce: Kintseva zupynka, bud laska, vykhodte — last stop, please exit.
• номер маршруту

  nomer marshrutu

  route number

  Marshrut is the route; the number is on every ticket. A marshrutka is not a number but the little shared van itself — smaller than a bus, faster, and everywhere.
• година пік

  hodyna pik

  rush hour

  The hour is hodYna here, and pik is borrowed for "peak". There are two peaks a day, and the evening one jams just as thoroughly as the morning one.
• розклад автобусів

  rozklad avtobusiv

  bus schedule

  Rozklad is any schedule. Add the "of" plural: rozklad avtobusiv, poizdiv, litakiv — buses, trains, planes, one pattern for all transport.
• сплатити проїзд

  splatyty proizd

  to pay the fare

  Splatyty is to settle a debt in full — closer to "settle" than to plain "pay". The fare carries the two-dotted i: pro-yizd, a riding-through.
• зайняти місце

  zainiaty mistse

  to take a seat

  The sign on a restroom door saying zainiato — "occupied" — is the same verb. To hold a seat for someone else is prydtrymaty mistse, same root, other prefix.
• викликати таксі

  vyklykaty taksi

  to call a taxi

  Vyklykaty has a k inside, like "click" — to summon. The same verb calls a doctor to your house: vyklykaty likaria. One verb, two emergencies.
• вийти на наступній

  vyity na nastupnii

  to get off at the next stop

  The transport pair — enter and exit — works only for vehicles; leaving the house is different. And the word "stop" is usually dropped: "we will get off at the next" says it all.
• район

  raion

  district

  A spalnyi raion is a "sleeping district" — the residential suburbs where people only sleep. In Kyiv locals navigate by districts, not street names.
• центр міста

  tsentr mista

  city center

  Misto, city, plus tsentr, center — and in speech it shortens to "I am going to the center", with the city understood. No parking in the center, the sign warns.
• околиця

  okolytsia

  outskirts

  From kolo, "a circle": this is what lies around the town's rim. The same family gives you the word for "surroundings".
• будівництво

  budivnytstvo

  construction site

  Long but see-through: bud- is the build-root. The builder, the house and this word for the site all live in one family.
• ремонт дороги

  remont dorohy

  road repairs

  Remont covers fixing a thing and fixing a road. The orange road sign says robochi roboty — "road works" — and the detour is an obyizd.
• покажчик

  pokazhchyk

  signpost

  From pokazaty, "to show": the word is a shower-of-the-way. The same noun is an index in a book — both things point you somewhere.
• громадський туалет

  hromadskyi tualet

  public toilet

  Hromada is "community": hromadskyi means belonging to everyone — hence hromadskyi transport, public transport, from the same root. The toilet itself needs no translation.
• чистий

  chystyi

  clean

  Clean water, clean air, clean conscience — chysta voda, chysta sovist — one adjective for all three. To clean is chystyty, and a cleaner is a prybiralnytsia.
• брудний

  brudnyi

  dirty

  The word is brudnyi, and dirt is brud. To get dirty is zabrudnytysia — the same za- prefix as getting lost: one little syllable of mishap.
• велелюдно

  veleliudno

  bustling (full of people)

  Vele- is the old booster for "great", so the word says great-with-people. The short everyday version simply drops the booster.
• село

  selo

  village

  Despite the sound, no trees are involved: selo is a village, the word you see in countless place names. "Village" as an adjective is silskyi — rural, of the village.
• столиця

  stolytsia

  capital (city)

  International in feel, ending in -ytsia. Kyiv is stolytsia Ukrainy — a fixed formula you will read on every poster.
• громадський транспорт

  hromadskyi transport

  public transport

  Not from the society word — "public" here is hromadskyi, from hromada, "the community". The marshrutka, the fixed-route minibus, counts as a member of the family.
• дитячий садок

  dytiachyi sadok

  kindergarten

  Word for word "children's garden" — the same garden metaphor as English. In speech it shrinks to the tender diminutive sadochok.
• дитячий майданчик

  dytiachyi maidanchyk

  playground

  From maidan, an open square. The equipment names are friendly too: hoidalky, "swings", hirka, "slide" — all on the maidanchyk.
• фонтан

  fontan

  fountain

  International. A fountain on the square is a fontan na ploshchi — the classic meeting point for a date, same as everywhere.
• цвинтар

  tsvyntar

  cemetery

  The everyday word is a fully native one; kladovyshche is understood too, but the sign at the gate reads tsyvntar. Old words keep the official posts.
• пожежна машина

  pozhezhna mashyna

  fire truck

  The fire-root again, the same one as in the firefighter-word: pozhezha. The adjective keeps its zh in the middle — no vowel swap here.
• квартал

  kvartal

  city block

  Two meanings in one word: a block of buildings and a quarter of a year. Zhyvu v tykhomu kvartali — "I live in a quiet block".
• сквер

  skver

  small park

  One syllable: skver. A pocket of green between buildings; anything bigger graduates to park.
• вежа

  vezha

  tower

  No relative of "tower" — vezha must be learned whole. It covers castle towers and residential high-rises alike.
• передмістя

  peredmistia

  suburb

  Literally "before-the-city" — what stands in front of the misto. U peredmisti, "in the suburbs", keeps the usual sliding endings.
• селище

  selyshche

  small town

  Selo is a village, selyshche is a small town — one nest, different sizes. Both live in addresses and train announcements.
• перехожий

  perekhozhyi

  passer-by

  A participle that grew into a noun: "one passing by". It declines like an adjective — perekhohoho — keeping its old grammar.
• пішохід

  pishokhid

  pedestrian

  From pishky, "on foot". The road sign pishokhidnyi perekhid, "pedestrian crossing", is this word with its jacket on.
• вивіска

  vyviska

  sign

  The tight i in the root: vyviska, from vyvishuvaty, "to hang out". It hangs over the kramnytsya, doing its one job.
• урна

  urna

  litter bin

  The street urna is for smittya, "trash" — same word as a funeral urn, but on the sidewalk nobody hesitates. Kyn paper — "throw the paper".
• вуличний ліхтар

  vulychnyi likhtar

  streetlight

  From vulytsya, "street". The pocket one is likhtaryk, "flashlight", and the street one svityt, "shines".
• газон

  hazon

  lawn

  Borrowed through French, so the letters map onto English almost sound for sound. The classic park sign orders you off it — and says so with a little rhyme.
• клумба

  klumba

  flowerbed

  Another shared word. Its fancier cousin kvitnyk — from kvitka, "flower" — is the one Ukrainian gardeners say with love.
• ґанок

  ganok

  porch

  Borrowed from German Gang, "a passage" — and its first letter, g, is the one Ukrainian letter with no match in most other Cyrillic alphabets. A rare bird.
• сходинка

  skhodynka

  step (of stairs)

  From skhody, "stairs". The word stupin — a "degree, stage" — is reserved for abstract steps; the physical one is skhodynka.
• номер будинку

  nomer budynku

  building number

  A building is budynok; a dim is the home where a family lives. The number follows the street name: vulytsia Shevchenka, 5.
• назва вулиці

  nazva vulytsi

  street name

  Nazva is "name" — short and ending-free, unlike its longer cousins. Then comes a bare "of" form with no preposition: nazva vulytsi.
• стовп

  stovp

  pole

  Closer to the old word "stoup" — Ukrainian keeps a v between the t and the p: stovp. Bicycles lean on it, wires hang from it.
• старе місто

  stare misto

  old town

  The neuter adjective ends in -e: stare misto — staryi never attaches to misto. Every European old town is announced with this phrase.
• житловий будинок

  zhytlovyi budynok

  residential building

  From zhyty, "to live": zhytlovyy is "for living in", and zhylets is the person who lives there. Building, resident — one family.
• тиша

  tysha

  silence

  Just two syllables: tysha. A longer bookish version exists, but nobody says it on a quiet morning street.

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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.

• Я в місті

  Ya v misti

  I am in the city
• Вулиця тиха, я тут живу

  Vulytsia tykha, ya tut zhyvu

  The street is quiet, I live here
• Аптека поруч з крамницею

  Apteka poruch z kramnytseiu

  The pharmacy is next to the shop
• На світлофорі поверніть праворуч

  Na svitlofori povernit pravoruch

  Wait at the traffic light
• Велосипед стоїть у підʼїзді

  Velosyped stoit u pidizdi

  The bicycle stands in the stairwell
• Зупинка автобуса за поворотом

  Zupynka avtobusa za povorotom

  The bus stop is over there

What is worth knowing about these words

місто (misto) — city. Said "misto" with the tight i. The vowels hop around in other cases: u misti "in the city", mista "of the city".

вулиця (vulytsia) — street. Stress on the first syllable: VU-lytsya. In addresses the word itself is usually dropped — Khreshchatyk, 22 says it all.

аптека (apteka) — pharmacy. The green cross on the sign is the same worldwide. The after-hours one is cherhova apteka — "duty pharmacy", posted on every other door.

світлофор (svitlofor) — traffic light. Svitlo, light, plus for: a light-bearer at the crossing. The red light is chervone svitlo, and the color words are the same everyday ones used elsewhere.

Test yourself

Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.

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 times
  Adesope, 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 times
  Mawson & 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.

Next

• All topics of the Ukrainian language3964 words by topic and letter
• Greetings and goodbyes9 words
• Numbers and counting10 words
• Food and drink175 words
• Shopping and money85 words
• Asking the way19 words
• Pronunciation
• From scratch
• Why a word list doesn't sticka note