З looks like one little word, but it is really three prepositions sharing a body, and the case of the following noun tells you which one you are dealing with. With the genitive it means "from / out of / off / since." With the instrumental it means "with / together with." With the accusative (a narrow, colloquial use) it means "about, approximately." The same three letters — з друга (genitive, "from a friend") versus з другом (instrumental, "with a friend") — flip meaning entirely on the ending of the noun. On top of that, з has two pronunciation-driven spellings, із and зі, chosen by the sounds around it. This page untangles all of it.
The case decides the meaning
This is the headline. Master one thing and you have mastered з: read the ending of the noun, and the case gives you the meaning.
| Case after з | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Genitive | from / out of / off / since | з Ки́єва, зі столу́, з ра́нку |
| Instrumental | with / together with | з дру́гом, ка́ва з молоко́м |
| Accusative | about / approximately | з годи́ну, з ти́ждень |
Hold onto the minimal pair: з дру́га (genitive) = "from / off a friend"; з дру́гом (instrumental) = "with a friend." Nothing but the noun's ending separates them. So the discipline for з is never "what does з mean?" but "what case is the noun in?"
З + genitive: 'from / out of / off / since'
The genitive is the case of origin and source, and з + genitive covers the whole family of "from / out of / off."
Out of / from a place
Він щойно поверну́вся з Ки́єва, ще на́віть не розпакува́в валі́зу.
He's just got back from Kyiv, hasn't even unpacked his suitcase yet.
Ді́ти ви́бігли зі шко́ли, як ті́льки пролуна́в дзвіно́к.
The children ran out of school the moment the bell rang.
Off / down from a surface
Кни́жка впа́ла зі столу́, до́бре, що не на́ ногу.
The book fell off the table — good thing not onto my foot.
Зніми́, будь ла́ска, ку́ртку з гачка́ й пода́й мені́.
Take the jacket off the hook, please, and pass it to me.
'Since' in time — з ра́нку, з понеді́лка
A high-frequency temporal use: з + genitive marks the starting point in time — "since / from." З ра́нку "since morning," з дити́нства "since childhood," з понеді́лка "from Monday."
Я на нога́х з ше́стої ра́нку, тому́ ввечері па́даю з ніг.
I've been on my feet since six in the morning, so by evening I'm dead on my feet.
'One of' — оди́н / одна́ з + genitive plural
The partitive "one of …" is оди́н/одна́/одне́ з + genitive plural: одна́ з книг "one of the books," оди́н з нас "one of us."
Це одна́ з найкра́щих книжо́к, що я чита́ла цього́ ро́ку.
This is one of the best books I've read this year.
З + instrumental: 'with / together with'
Switch the noun to the instrumental and з means "with" — accompaniment, company, or an ingredient added. This is the everyday "with."
In someone's company
Я йду в кіно́ з дру́гом, пове́рнемося пі́зно.
I'm going to the cinema with a friend, we'll be back late.
Поговори́ з ке́рівником, пе́рше ніж прийма́ти рі́шення.
Talk it over with your manager before you make a decision.
With an added ingredient or feature
Мені́, будь ла́ска, ка́ву з молоко́м і без цу́кру.
A coffee with milk and no sugar for me, please.
Він замо́вив піцу з гриба́ми, а я — з шинко́ю.
He ordered a pizza with mushrooms, and I had ham.
A note worth filing: when "with" means an instrument or means ("I wrote with a pen," "I cut it with a knife"), Ukrainian uses the bare instrumental, no з (писа́ти ру́чкою, рі́зати ноже́м). The з + instrumental is reserved for accompaniment, not tools — a distinction laid out on the instrumental-vs-з page.
Він нарі́зав хліб ноже́м і подава́в його́ з ма́слом.
He cut the bread with a knife and served it with butter.
Here both "with"s appear: ноже́м (bare instrumental — the tool) and з ма́слом (з + instrumental — the accompaniment). This single sentence is the whole distinction in miniature.
З + accusative: 'about / approximately'
The third з is colloquial and narrow but genuinely useful: з + accusative of a quantity = "about, roughly, around" that amount. З годи́ну "about an hour," з ти́ждень "a week or so," з кіломе́тр "a kilometre or thereabouts."
Зачека́й з годи́ну, я ще не зо́всім зібра́вся.
Wait about an hour, I'm not quite ready yet.
До села́ лиши́лося з кіломе́тр, не бі́льше.
There's about a kilometre left to the village, no more.
Notice this з + accusative often looks identical in spelling to the bare quantity, because the accusative of these masculine inanimate nouns equals the nominative (годи́ну is feminine accusative; ти́ждень, кіломе́тр are masculine acc = nom). What signals "approximately" is the presence of з before a number-like quantity. Treat it as an idiom of rough estimation.
Із and зі: choosing the shape by sound
З has three spellings — з, із, зі — and they do not change the meaning or the case. The choice is purely euphonic (about ease of pronunciation), exactly like the в/у and і/й alternations. The principle is to avoid clusters of consonants that are hard to say.
| Form | Use it when… | Example |
|---|---|---|
| з | the default, before most single consonants and vowels | з Ки́єва, з дру́гом, з о́сені |
| зі | before a cluster of consonants, especially with з/с/ш/щ | зі столу́, зі шко́ли, зі сме́таною |
| із | between consonants, to break a hard cluster (often after a consonant-final word) | зустрі́вся із дру́зями, оди́н із них |
Він узя́в кни́жку зі сто́су, що лежа́в на пі́длозі.
He took a book off the pile that was lying on the floor.
Оди́н із студе́нтів запита́в про прийме́нники — до́бре запита́ння.
One of the students asked about prepositions — a good question.
The rule of thumb: say it aloud, and if з alone bumps into a consonant cluster (зі столу́, зі шко́ли), pad it to зі; between two consonants in running speech, із smooths the join. The fuller treatment of all the euphonic alternations is on the euphonic-variants page.
Source-language comparison
For an English speaker, the hard truth is that з is three English prepositions ("from," "with," "about") collapsed into one word, and only the case disambiguates — there is no separate word to lean on. English keeps "from a friend" and "with a friend" lexically distinct; Ukrainian keeps them apart by the ending alone (з дру́га vs з дру́гом). So when you produce з, you must already know which case you want; and when you read з, you must check the ending before you decide what it means. The із/зі business has no English analogue at all — English never reshapes a preposition for euphony.
For a learner from Russian, the case-meaning split is parallel (с/из), but the forms differ: Ukrainian merges "from-out-of" and "off/with" into one з (where Russian splits из vs с), and the euphonic ladder is з / із / зі (not с / со). Lean on the single з and let the case do the work.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я був з дру́га в кіно́. (genitive for 'with a friend')
Incorrect — 'with' = з + instrumental: з дру́гом. The genitive з дру́га means 'from / off a friend'.
✅ Я був з дру́гом у кіно́.
I was at the cinema with a friend — з + instrumental.
❌ ка́ва з молоко́ (nominative after 'with')
Incorrect — accompaniment is з + instrumental: з молоко́м.
✅ ка́ва з молоко́м
coffee with milk — з + instrumental.
❌ Він поверну́вся з Ки́їв. (nominative after 'from')
Incorrect — 'from' = з + genitive: з Ки́єва.
✅ Він поверну́вся з Ки́єва.
He came back from Kyiv — з + genitive.
❌ Я рі́зав хліб з ноже́м. (з for an instrument)
Incorrect — a tool takes the bare instrumental, no з: рі́зав хліб ноже́м.
✅ Я рі́зав хліб ноже́м.
I cut the bread with a knife — bare instrumental for the tool.
❌ зустрі́вся з сестро́ю зі бра́том
Incorrect — euphony: before a single consonant use з; before the cluster use із/зі: з сестро́ю і з бра́том.
✅ зустрі́вся із сестро́ю і бра́том
met with his sister and brother — із smooths the consonant join.
Key Takeaways
- З is three prepositions in one, separated by case: read the noun's ending first.
- З + genitive = "from / out of / off / since": з Ки́єва, зі столу́, з ра́нку, одна́ з книг.
- З + instrumental = "with / together with" (accompaniment): з дру́гом, ка́ва з молоко́м — but a tool takes the bare instrumental, no з (рі́зати ноже́м).
- З + accusative = "about / approximately" a quantity: з годи́ну, з ти́ждень.
- З / із / зі is one preposition in three euphonic shapes — chosen by the surrounding sounds, never by meaning (зі столу́, оди́н із них).
Now practice Ukrainian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Ukrainian→Related Topics
- Prepositions Governing the GenitiveA2 — The genitive governs the largest set of Ukrainian prepositions — the prepositions of absence, benefit, origin, bounded destination, proximity, sequence, and opposition: без, для, до, від, з/із/зі, бі́ля/ко́ло, по́близу, се́ред/посере́д, навко́ло/довко́ла, після, про́ти/навпро́ти, замість, крім/окрім, ра́ди/зара́ди, протя́гом, під час. The key insight for English speakers is that the rich meanings of English 'to', 'from', and 'for' fan out across several fixed genitive pairings — до (to a person / up to a limit), від (from a source), з (out of a place), для (for a beneficiary) — each learned as one unit.
- Prepositions Governing the InstrumentalA2 — The instrumental governs the prepositions of accompaniment and static relative position: з/із/зі 'with, together with' (з дру́гом, чай з молоко́м), над 'above', під 'under (located)', за 'behind / at' (за столо́м), пе́ред 'in front of', між/поміж 'between', по́за 'outside', and поряд з / поруч з 'next to'. Two insights anchor the page: the preposition з is BOTH 'with' (+ instrumental) and 'from' (+ genitive) — the case alone disambiguates з дру́гом 'with a friend' from з дру́га 'from a friend'; and over/under/behind/in-front take the instrumental for STATIC location but the accusative for motion-toward.
- Euphonic Variants: з/із/зі, у/в, від/одB1 — The euphonic preposition variants — з/із/зі ('with, from'), у/в ('in'), and від/од ('from') — are the SAME preposition in different phonetic clothing, chosen purely to smooth the boundary between sounds: з before a vowel or single consonant, зі before з/с/ш/щ-clusters, із to break an awkward consonant pile-up; у after a consonant or at a pause, в after a vowel. The choice never touches case or meaning — it parallels the word-level в/у and і/й euphony and is one of the clearest markers of native-like, polished Ukrainian.
- Bare Instrumental vs З + InstrumentalB1 — The decision page for English 'with'. The BARE instrumental (no preposition) marks the instrument or means BY which something is done: пишу́ ру́чкою, ї́ду авто́бусом, рі́жу ноже́м. З + instrumental marks accompaniment — being together with a companion or an added ingredient: йду з дру́гом, ка́ва з молоко́м. One question resolves the English 'with': is X the tool you use, or the company you keep?
- Instrumental: Core UsesA2 — What the instrumental does — the bare 'by means of' (писа́ти ру́чкою, ї́хати авто́бусом, говори́ти украї́нською) with no preposition, the predicate noun after past/future/infinitive of бу́ти and after ста́ти/працюва́ти (він був учи́телем, хо́чу ста́ти лі́карем), companionship with з (з дру́гом, чай з цу́кром), route (іти́ лі́сом), and time adverbials (вра́нці, весно́ю).
- Prepositions and Case Government: OverviewA2 — The founding principle of the Ukrainian prepositional system: every preposition GOVERNS a case — you cannot use a preposition without putting its noun in the case it demands. Only five of the seven cases are governable (gen/dat/acc/instr/loc); some prepositions take different cases for different meanings (на + acc motion vs на + loc location; з + gen 'from' vs з + instr 'with'); and the relationship lives in the preposition AND the ending together, with euphonic variants (з/із/зі, у/в, від/од) chosen for sound.