Forming Adverbs (-о, -е, по-...-ому/-ськи)

The good news about Ukrainian adverbs is that the most common type — adverbs of manner, answering як? ("how?") — is built by a single tiny operation: take the adjective, swap its ending for -о, and you are done. швидки́й ("fast") becomes шви́дко ("quickly"), га́рний ("nice") becomes га́рно ("nicely"). Where English glues -ly onto an adjective ("quick → quickly"), Ukrainian glues -о, and the parallel is almost exact. This page covers that main pattern, the smaller -е variant, the special hyphenated по- adverbs of "in an X way," the everyday adverbs that are really frozen noun-forms, and the comparative adverbs that double as the adjective's comparative.

The main pattern: adjective stem + -о

Strip the adjective ending (-ий / -ій / -а / -е) off and add -о. The result is an indeclinable adverb — it never changes for gender, number, or case.

Watch the stress, which sometimes shifts from the adjective to the adverb: швидки́й (stress on the ending) → шви́дко (stress on the stem). You learn these case by case, but they are regular enough to feel natural quickly.

The -е variant: soft and hushing stems

A subset of adjectives — those with hushing (ж, ч, ш, щ) stems — form the adverb in -е instead of -о. (Soft stems, by contrast, keep -о, simply spelled as -ьо: дру́жній → дру́жньо "amicably," ра́нній → ра́нньо "early.")

The single most useful member is до́бре ("well, fine, OK"), the everyday answer to "how are things?" — note the stress, до́бре (on the first syllable). Do not confuse it with добро́ ("goodness," a noun) or with adjective forms.

The по-...-ому / по-...-(сь)ки adverbs: 'in an X way'

This is the special, characteristically Slavic pattern, and the one English speakers most need to learn deliberately. To say "in an X way / X-style" — in a new way, in a friendly way, in Ukrainian, my own way — Ukrainian builds a hyphenated adverb from по- plus an adjective ending in -ому or a stem in -(сь)ки / -цьки. These adverbs are built on the preposition по (see the по-preposition page).

There are two sub-patterns:

по- + adjective in -ому (from the full adjective):

по- + stem in -ськи / -цьки (a slightly more colloquial, "the way X does it" feel):

(The "like an animal" adverbs — по-вовчо́му "like a wolf," по-соба́чому "like a dog" — belong to the -ому group above, built on the possessive adjective вовчи́й / соба́чий.)

Three things to nail down. First, the hyphen is obligatory: по-украї́нськи is one written unit with a hyphen, never two words. Second, both по-украї́нському and по-украї́нськи exist and mean the same "in Ukrainian (manner)" — the -ому form is a touch more formal, the -ськи form a touch more colloquial. Third, and most important, this is not how you name a language as a system.

Adverbs from frozen case-forms of nouns

Many everyday adverbs are not built from adjectives at all — they are old case-forms of nouns that froze into adverbs. You do not derive these; you learn them as words. They are worth recognising because their spelling (one word vs hyphen vs separate) is a known stumbling block.

Comparative adverbs: same -ше / -іше as adjectives

Here is a fact that saves a lot of memorising: the comparative adverb is identical to the comparative of the adjective. Both are formed with -ше or -іше, and the same word does both jobs — the only difference is what it modifies.

Notice кра́ще ("better") and гі́рше ("worse") are suppletive — they don't come from the positive form by rule, just as English "good → better" doesn't. The superlative adds най- to the comparative: найшви́дше (fastest), найкра́ще (best). Full treatment is on the comparative-and-superlative-adverbs page.

Spelling: one word, hyphen, or two?

A quick orientation on the most common spelling traps:

• по-...-ому / по-...-ськи adverbs are hyphenated: по-но́вому, по-украї́нськи, по-моє́му.
• по + a noun phrase is two words: по доро́зі, по телефо́ну (here по is the preposition, not part of an adverb).
• frozen noun-adverbs are usually one word: вра́нці, удень, наре́шті — though some compound time/place adverbs keep a hyphen (де-не-де́ "here and there").

Here both appear side by side: по-моє́му (hyphenated adverb) and по доро́зі (preposition + noun, two words).

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, the -о pattern is the easy, familiar part — it is essentially Ukrainian's "-ly," and ти́хо / шви́дко / га́рно map straight onto quietly / quickly / nicely. The genuinely new piece is the hyphenated по-...-ому / по-...-ськи set for "in an X way," which English has no single device for — it uses paraphrases ("in a new way," "in my opinion," "wolfishly"). And the manner-vs-language split (по-украї́нськи for manner, украї́нською for the language) is a distinction English collapses into one phrase, "in Ukrainian." Keep them apart from the start.

For a learner from Russian, the -о/-е formation is parallel, and so is the по-...-ому / по-...-ски pattern (Ukrainian -ськи / -ому vs Russian -ски / -ому). The one thing to retune is the language-naming default: Ukrainian strongly prefers the bare instrumental (говори́ти украї́нською) for "speak a language," reserving the по-adverb for manner.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The default manner adverb is adjective stem + -о (шви́дко, га́рно, ти́хо); soft / hushing stems take -е (до́бре, блиску́че).
• "In an X way" uses the hyphenated по-...-ому / по-...-ськи pattern (по-но́вому, по-дру́жньому, по-украї́нськи, по-моє́му).
• "In Ukrainian (manner)" is по-украї́нськи, but naming the language is the bare instrumental — говори́ти украї́нською.
• Many everyday adverbs are frozen noun case-forms (вра́нці, вдень, уночі́, наре́шті) — learn them as words.
• The comparative adverb equals the adjective's comparative (-ше / -іше): шви́дше, кра́ще, бі́льше, with superlative най- (найкра́ще).