Reading (A1): My day
A short A1 Ukrainian reading text: Olena, a student in Kyiv, describes her day. With a word list, grammar notes, an English translation and comprehension questions.
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What you will practise
Read a short text in the present tense about a student's day in Kyiv and answer questions about it.
Read the text first. The questions below are about it, and you can scroll back to it at any time. Check each answer, read the explanation, and continue. Hints and “Show answer” are there when you need them. Stress marks are optional when you type.
The text
Read by a computer-generated voice (OpenAI text-to-speech), not individually checked by a listener. It is not a recording of a native speaker, and a computer voice can occasionally stress or pronounce a word wrongly: the text, with its stress marks, is the reference.
Мій день
Мене́ зва́ти Оле́на. Мені́ два́дцять років. Я живу́ в Ки́єві з ма́мою і бра́том. Ми живемо́ в кварти́рі на тре́тьому по́версі.
Я студе́нтка. Я вчу́ся в університе́ті. Вра́нці я сні́даю: я п’ю ка́ву і їм хліб із си́ром. По́тім я ї́ду в університе́т на метро́.
Заня́ття почина́ються о дев’я́тій. Я вивча́ю англі́йську мо́ву та істо́рію. Істо́рія — мій улю́блений предме́т.
Пі́сля заня́ть я гуля́ю в па́рку з по́другою а́бо чита́ю кни́жку в кафе́. Уве́чері я вдо́ма. Ма́ма готу́є вече́рю, а брат гра́є на гіта́рі.
Я люблю́ свій день. А яки́й у вас день?
Words to know
- живу́, живемо́ (жи́ти)
- I live, we live (to live)
- по́верх
- floor, storey
- вчу́ся (вчи́тися)
- I study (to study, to be a student)
- сні́даю (сні́дати)
- I have breakfast
- вивча́ю (вивча́ти)
- I study, I learn (a subject)
- улю́блений
- favourite
- предме́т
- (school) subject
- по́друга
- (female) friend
- вдо́ма
- at home
- готу́є (готува́ти)
- cooks, makes (a meal)
Grammar in this text
I, we, she: present-tense endings
The ending of the verb shows who does the action, so the pronoun can even be left out: я живу́, ми живемо́; я чита́ю, ма́ма готу́є.
- Я живу́ в Ки́єві з ма́мою і бра́том. I live in Kyiv with my mum and my brother.
- Ми живемо́ в кварти́рі на тре́тьому по́версі. We live in a flat on the third floor.
- Ма́ма готу́є вече́рю, а брат гра́є на гіта́рі. Mum makes dinner, and my brother plays the guitar.
Where: в and на with the locative
After в (in) and на (on, at), a noun for a place is in the locative: Ки́їв → в Ки́єві, кварти́ра → в кварти́рі, парк → в па́рку. Кафе́ never changes.
- Я живу́ в Ки́єві з ма́мою і бра́том. I live in Kyiv with my mum and my brother.
- Пі́сля заня́ть я гуля́ю в па́рку з по́другою… After classes I go for a walk in the park with a friend…
With: з and the instrumental
З meaning with takes the instrumental: -ою for feminine nouns in -а, -ом for masculine nouns like брат (-ем after a soft consonant, as in лі́карем).
- Я живу́ в Ки́єві з ма́мою і бра́том. I live in Kyiv with my mum and my brother.
- …я п’ю ка́ву і їм хліб із си́ром. …I drink coffee and eat bread with cheese.
Age in the dative
Age is said with the dative: literally “to me are twenty years”.
- Мені́ два́дцять років. I am twenty.
English translation
My name is Olena. I am twenty. I live in Kyiv with my mum and my brother. We live in a flat on the third floor.
I am a student. I study at university. In the morning I have breakfast: I drink coffee and eat bread with cheese. Then I go to the university by metro.
Classes start at nine. I study English and history. History is my favourite subject.
After classes I go for a walk in the park with a friend or read a book in a café. In the evening I am at home. Mum makes dinner, and my brother plays the guitar.
I love my day. And what is your day like?
Question 1 of 7
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