Originally posted by: TseDanylo on Duolingo Archived here
Вітаю!
Ukrainian is an East Slavic language spoken primarily in Central and Western Ukraine by 40 million people making it the third most spoken Slavic language by number of native speakers in the world!
Personal Pronouns/Особисті Займенники
In Ukrainian, the personal pronouns are quite easy. So, this won't be a very long post. Personal pronouns are words like; I, you, he, she etc.. Let's learn their Ukrainian equivalents!
- Я - I, pronounced "yah"
- Ти - You, pronounced "tih"
- Він - He, pronounced "veen" or "ween"
- Вона - She, pronounced "vohNAH"
- Воно - It, pronounced "vohNOH"
- Ми - We, pronounced "mih"
- Ви - You, pronounced "vih"
- Вони - They, pronounced "vohnih"
Ти VS. Ви!
If you've learned French, it's just like tu and vous and your problem is solved! But for those who don't know the difference between these two pronouns here are the rules.
Ти is used...
- To address someone you know well e.g. family and friends
- To address animals (if you want to practice Ukrainian with your cat)
- To address a child
- When using an insult
Ви is used...
- To address someone you don't know well e.g. stranger, taxi driver, etc.
- To address someone higher up than you e.g. teacher, boss
- To address the elderly
- To express politeness
- If there is more than one person regardless if you know them well or not