Noun plurals

After this page you will be able to make the plural of most Ukrainian nouns from the dictionary form. You will know which ending to choose, why the stress often moves in the plural, and how to handle the common irregular plurals. You will also recognise nouns that exist only in the plural and nouns that never change at all.

This page covers the nominative plural: the form for the subject, and the form a dictionary gives as “the plural”. The plural has all seven cases too. The accusative and genitive plurals have their own pages.

Hard, soft and mixed nouns

English mostly adds -s. Ukrainian chooses an ending from two things: the noun’s gender, and the last consonant of its stem (the noun without its ending). Grammars divide nouns into three groups by that consonant [src: pravopys-2026, §67]:

• Hard: the stem ends in an ordinary hard consonant, as in кни́га, студе́нт, мі́сто.
• Soft: the stem ends in a soft consonant. You can usually see this from -я, -ь or -й (or -е in neuter nouns) in the dictionary form, as in пі́сня, учи́тель, музе́й, мо́ре.
• Mixed: the stem ends in one of the “hushing” consonants ж, ч, ш or щ, as in пло́ща, ключ, прі́звище.

The rule of thumb is short. Hard nouns take -и. Soft and mixed nouns take -і, written -ї after a vowel or an apostrophe. Neuter nouns take -а or -я. The tables below show this group by group.

Feminine nouns in -а and -я

The same endings apply to the few masculine nouns that end in -а or -я, such as суддя́ (judge): су́дді [src: pravopys-2026, §75].

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant

You can’t always see from the dictionary form that a noun in -р is soft. Лі́кар is soft (лікарі́), but до́лар is hard (до́лари) [src: pravopys-2026, §67]. The dictionary plural settles it.

The stem can change

Two changes inside the stem are common in masculine nouns [src: pravopys-2026, §9]:

• і becomes о or е. Many nouns have і in the last syllable of the dictionary form, but о or е in the plural and most other forms: стіл → столи́, кіт → коти́, ніж → ножі́, кінь → ко́ні.
• A vowel drops out. In some nouns the о or е of the last syllable disappears: буди́нок → буди́нки, день → дні, оліве́ць → олівці́.

Neuter nouns

Neuter nouns take -а or -я in the plural [src: pravopys-2026, §88].

Nouns like завда́ння (task) look the same in the singular and the plural. The words around them show the number: це завда́ння (this task), ці завда́ння (these tasks).

Feminine nouns ending in a consonant

Feminine nouns that end in a consonant take -і [src: pravopys-2026, §96]. The і of the stem often changes here as well: ніч → но́чі (nights).

Stress often moves in the plural

The stress of the plural is often on a different syllable from the singular. It can move towards the start of the word or towards the end, and you can’t predict which.

Stress matters because some forms are spelled alike. Сестри́ (of a sister) and се́стри (sisters) differ only in stress. So do кни́жки (of a book) and книжки́ (books) [src: pravopys-2026, §69, note]. Learn each plural together with its stress. Dictionaries such as Горох show it.

Irregular plurals

A few common nouns form their plural in an unexpected way.

Some notes on these groups:

• Лю́ди and ді́ти are separate words that serve as the plurals of люди́на and дити́на [src: pravopys-2026, §100, note].
• Young animals follow the pattern of кошеня́: теля́ → теля́та (calves), курча́ → курча́та (chicks). Дівча́ (girl) has the plural дівча́та, which you will hear very often [src: pravopys-2026, §99].
• Nouns in -анин, -янин, often names for where people come from, lose -ин in the plural: громадя́нин → громадя́ни (citizens) [src: pravopys-2026, §88, note].
• Ма́ти (mother) has the plural матері́ [src: pravopys-2026, §97]. In everyday speech, ма́ма (mum) is more common.

Nouns that are only plural

Some nouns have no singular, even when they name one object [src: pravopys-2026, §100]. Nouns and gender introduced a few of them.

Words that go with them always take plural forms, even for one object.

Nouns that never change

Many nouns borrowed from other languages end in a vowel such as -е, -і, -о or -ю. These never change their form: the singular, the plural and every case look the same [src: pravopys-2026, §140].

One common word is an exception. Пальто́ (coat) ends in -о but changes like an ordinary noun, by tradition: па́льта (coats) [src: pravopys-2026, §140; goroh-dictionary].

Words that agree with a plural noun

In the plural, adjectives and the past tense have one form for all three genders. So the plural ending of the adjective is the same whatever the noun’s gender: нові́ кни́ги, нові́ студе́нти, нові́ ві́кна. See Adjectives and agreement.

Common mistakes and limits