Questions

After this page you will be able to ask simple questions in Ukrainian: yes/no questions, and questions with words like who, where and when. You will know the difference between the three words for where, and why who, what, which and whose change their form.

Sentence structure gave a first look at questions. This page goes further.

Yes/no questions

With intonation alone

The simplest yes/no question has the same words and the same order as a statement. Only the intonation changes, and in writing the question mark shows it.

With чи

You can also start a yes/no question with the small word чи. It has no English translation: it simply marks the sentence as a question. The rest of the sentence stays the same.

Both kinds of question are correct. Intonation alone is very common in everyday speech. Starting with чи makes the question clear even in writing, where you cannot hear the intonation.

Чи also means whether or if in the middle of a sentence: Я не зна́ю, чи він удо́ма. (I don’t know whether he is at home.) And between two options it means or: ка́ва чи чай? (coffee or tea?).

Answering

Yes is так and no is ні. Because the verb ending already shows the person, you can also answer with the verb alone.

To answer no to a question about an action, you usually also need не before the verb: Ні, не зна́ю. Negation explains how ні and не work together.

Question words

A question with a question word puts that word at the front. These are the most common ones.

The examples mean: Who is this? What are you doing? Where do you live? Where are you going? Where are you from? When will you be at home? Why aren’t you asleep? What do you need this for? What’s your name? (literally “How do they call you?”) How much does this cost? What day is it today? Whose phone is this? The examples with ти, тебе́ and тобі́ are informal; Зві́дки ви? is formal or plural.

After the question word, the subject can come before or after the verb: Де ти живе́ш? and Де живе́ твій брат? are both normal.

Three words for “where”

English uses where for both place and direction. Ukrainian has three separate words.

• Де asks about a place: where something is, or where something happens.
• Куди́ asks about a direction: where someone or something is going to. Use it with verbs of motion such as іти́ (to go, on foot) and ї́хати (to go, by transport).
• Зві́дки asks where someone or something comes from.

The answers follow the same split: a place after де, a direction after куди́. Common prepositions shows how the noun’s case changes to match.

Who and what change their form

Хто and що are pronouns, and they have cases like nouns. The form depends on the job of the word in the question, and on any preposition in front of it.

The examples with ти are informal. A few things to notice:

• In questions about a person who is the object, English often says who, but Ukrainian needs кого́.
• The preposition stays in front of the question word: З ким? (with whom?), Про що? (about what?). Про що ця кни́га? means “What is this book about?”
• Чому́ is the dative of що and also the everyday word for why.

Хто and що also have genitive forms, кого́ and чого́. You need them after prepositions that take the genitive, such as до and для: До кого́? (To whom?), Для чого́? (What for?). The genitive кого́ looks the same as the accusative. They also have locative forms, which you will meet later.

Which and whose agree with the noun

Яки́й (which, what kind of) and чий (whose) work like adjectives. They change to match the gender and number of the noun they ask about. Adjectives and agreement explains this matching.

Common mistakes and limits