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Маленька кав'ярня

The Little Café

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Ukrainian.

Chapter 1A1

Добрий день, бабусю

Good Day, Grandma

Before you read
No verb "to be": це and є

Ukrainian drops the verb "is" in a simple statement: Це кав'ярня just means "This is a café," word for word "This café." Use це to point at or identify something, and є only when you mean "there is, there are": Тут є фотографія, There is a photograph here.

не goes right before the word it negates

To say "not," put не directly in front of the word you are denying: Це не Канада, This is not Canada. Львів не маленький, Lviv is not small. No other changes needed.

Adjectives change their ending

Ukrainian adjectives match the noun's gender. Кав'ярня is feminine, so маленька and стара end in а. Двері takes a plural ending: старі. You will meet старий (masculine) and стара (feminine) both in this chapter.

у and на both mean "in, at, on"

у goes with places you are inside: у Львові, у кав'ярні. на goes with surfaces, open places, and the kitchen for reasons no one remembers: на Ринку, на кухні. Just notice both mean roughly "in" or "at", and the noun after them often changes its ending a little, like Львові from Львів.

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About this story

The Little Café is an A1 Ukrainian reader.

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Ukrainian.

This free chapter contains 57 learner-friendly sentences. The complete book has 10 chapters.

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