У кав’ярні: At the Café | Ukrainian Grammar

A customer orders coffee and a pastry, asks the price, and pays. This tiny script is packed with the case machinery that makes ordering work: the polite imperative Да́йте takes the accusative of what you want, but a measured quantity — a cup of coffee, a glass of water — pulls the substance into the genitive. Watch also for дя́кую вам, where "thank you" governs the dative. And note the title word itself: кав’я́рні has an apostrophe, written with the proper character ’.

The dialogue

Офіціа́нт: До́брий день! Що бу́дете замовля́ти? Good afternoon! What would you like to order?
Кліє́нтка: До́брий день! Да́йте, будь ла́ска, ча́шку ка́ви та оди́н круаса́н. Good afternoon! One cup of coffee and a croissant, please.
Офіціа́нт: Ка́ву яку́ — з молоко́м чи без? What kind of coffee — with milk or without?
Кліє́нтка: З молоко́м, будь ла́ска. І ще скля́нку води́. With milk, please. And also a glass of water.
Офіціа́нт: Зві́сно. Щось іще? Of course. Anything else?
Кліє́нтка: Ні, дя́кую. Скі́льки кошту́є круаса́н? No, thank you. How much is the croissant?
Офіціа́нт: Три́дцять п’ять гри́вень. Зара́з усе́ принесу́. Thirty-five hryvnias. I'll bring everything right away.
Офіціа́нт: Ось ва́ша ка́ва. Смачно́го! Here's your coffee. Enjoy your meal!
Кліє́нтка: Дя́кую вам! Раху́нок, будь ла́ска. Thank you! The bill, please.
Офіціа́нт: Будь ла́ска. Прихо́дьте ще! You're welcome. Come again!

Line-by-line grammar

The opening question — future + imperfective

The waiter opens with Що бу́дете замовля́ти? ("What will you order?"). This is the analytic future: бу́дете (future of "to be") + the imperfective infinitive замовля́ти. The imperfective is right here because ordering is framed as an open, ongoing process — he is inviting you to choose, not asking about one finished act. See aspect in the future.

Що бу́дете замовля́ти?

'What would you like to order?' — analytic future бу́дете + imperfective замовля́ти, framing ordering as an open process.

Да́йте + accusative — the polite order

The workhorse of ordering is Да́йте, будь ла́ска ("give, please"). Да́йте is the polite (ви) imperative, and what you ask for goes into the accusative: оди́н круаса́н (masculine inanimate, so accusative looks like the nominative). The phrase будь ла́ска ("please," literally "be (so) kind") is invariable.

Да́йте, будь ла́ска, оди́н круаса́н.

'One croissant, please.' — Да́йте is the polite imperative; круаса́н is accusative (inanimate masculine = nominative form).

See accusative uses and imperative politeness.

The genitive of quantity — ча́шку ка́ви, скля́нку води́

Here is the heart of the page. When you name a measure — a cup, a glass — the container is the accusative object of Да́йте, but the substance inside it drops into the genitive: ча́шку ка́ви ("a cup of coffee"), скля́нку води́ ("a glass of water"). The genitive answers "a cup of what."

Да́йте, будь ла́ска, ча́шку ка́ви.

'A cup of coffee, please.' — ча́шку is accusative (the container); ка́ви is genitive: 'a cup OF coffee.'

І ще скля́нку води́.

'And also a glass of water.' — скля́нку (accusative container) + води́ (genitive of вода́): 'a glass OF water.'

This is the partitive genitive — it marks a portion of an uncountable mass. Forget it and you get ❌ ча́шку ка́ва, which sounds like two separate things. See the partitive genitive.

"With milk" — з + instrumental; "without" — без + genitive

The two prepositions pull opposite cases. З молоко́м ("with milk") uses з + instrumental (молоко́ → молоко́м). Без ("without") uses без + genitive. The waiter compresses the choice to з молоко́м чи без? — note чи ("or"), the Ukrainian conjunction for offering alternatives.

З молоко́м чи без?

'With milk or without?' — з + instrumental молоко́м; without explicit object after без, but без always governs the genitive.

Asking the price — Скі́льки кошту́є?

Скі́льки кошту́є…? ("How much does … cost?") is the fixed price question. Кошту́є is third-person singular for one item; the thing priced stays in the nominative as the subject of кошту́є. The answer три́дцять п’ять гри́вень shows numeral agreement: after п’ять (and any number 5 and up), the currency goes into the genitive plural — гри́вня → гри́вень.

Скі́льки кошту́є круаса́н?

'How much is the croissant?' — круаса́н is the nominative subject of кошту́є ('costs'), a fixed price question.

Три́дцять п’ять гри́вень.

'Thirty-five hryvnias.' — after п’ять the noun takes the genitive plural: гри́вня → гри́вень.

See genitive after numbers.

"Enjoy your meal" — Смачно́го! (a frozen genitive)

Смачно́го! literally means "[of the] tasty," a genitive adjective with the noun left out — it is short for a wish like Смачно́го (вам обі́ду)! This is a true fossilised genitive, the standard thing to say as food is served. Treat it as one unanalysable word.

Смачно́го!

'Enjoy your meal!' — a frozen genitive adjective (смачни́й → смачно́го) with the noun dropped; a fixed table formula.

"Thank you" — дя́кую + dative

The verb дя́кувати ("to thank") governs the dative: you thank to someone. So it is дя́кую вам ("thank you," literally "I thank to-you"), with вам the dative of ви — never the accusative вас. This is one of the most common case-government traps for learners.

Дя́кую вам!

'Thank you!' — дя́кувати governs the dative, so 'to you' is вам (dative), not вас (accusative).

Standard Ukrainian is дя́кую, not the Russian спасибо — keep this clean. See dative uses and politeness formulas.

Paying and leaving — Раху́нок, будь ла́ска; Прихо́дьте ще

To ask for the bill you simply name it in the accusative: Раху́нок, будь ла́ска (раху́нок is masculine inanimate, accusative = nominative). The waiter signs off with Прихо́дьте ще! ("Come again!"), an imperfective imperative — он invites a repeated, habitual return, which is exactly what the imperfective conveys.

Раху́нок, будь ла́ска.

'The bill, please.' — раху́нок is the accusative object (inanimate masculine = nominative form), with the request left implicit.

Прихо́дьте ще!

'Come again!' — imperfective imperative прихо́дьте invites a repeated, habitual return; ще adds 'again / more.'

How this differs from English

English handles "a cup of coffee" with the little word of, and that of never changes: a cup of coffee, a glass of water, a kilo of apples. Ukrainian has no separate word for this of at all — the relationship is baked into the noun's ending. Ча́шку ка́ви is literally "cup coffee-of," with the "of" living inside the genitive -и of ка́ви. So where English adds a word, Ukrainian changes a word. Once you see that the genitive is the "of," ordering stops feeling like a memory test and starts feeling like a single mechanical move: name the measure, then bend the contents into the genitive.

The second difference is politeness architecture. English softens requests with modal verbs and question shapes — "could I get," "would you mind." Ukrainian leans instead on the bare polite imperative plus будь ла́ска: Да́йте, будь ла́ска is direct ("give, please") yet perfectly courteous. To an English ear "give me a coffee" sounds blunt, so learners over-hedge; in Ukrainian the imperative + будь ла́ска is the normal, friendly register. And remember дя́кую governs the dative — дя́кую вам, never дя́кую вас — because you are giving thanks to someone, a relationship English flattens into a single bare "thank you."

Common Mistakes

❌ Да́йте ча́шку ка́ва.

Incorrect — the substance must be partitive genitive after the measure word, not nominative.

✅ Да́йте ча́шку ка́ви.

Correct — 'a cup OF coffee,' with the genitive ка́ви.

❌ Дя́кую вас.

Incorrect — дя́кувати takes the dative, so 'you' must be вам, not the accusative вас.

✅ Дя́кую вам.

Correct — 'thank you,' with the dative вам.

❌ Скі́льки кошту́є п’ять гри́вня?

Incorrect — after п’ять the noun is genitive plural, гри́вень, not the singular гри́вня.

✅ Три́дцять п’ять гри́вень.

Correct — genitive plural гри́вень after the numeral.

❌ Да́йте кофе.

Incorrect — кофе is Russian; standard Ukrainian is ка́ва (here genitive ка́ви).

✅ Да́йте ча́шку ка́ви.

Correct — the Ukrainian word is ка́ва.

💡

One measure word, one case shift: the container is the accusative object (ча́шку, скля́нку), and whatever fills it slides into the genitive (ка́ви, води́). Lock the pair together — ча́шку ка́ви, скля́нку води́, ки́ло я́блук — and you will never get the case wrong when ordering.

Phrases to reuse

Да́йте, будь ла́ска, … — "…, please" (Да́йте + accusative)
ча́шку ка́ви / скля́нку води́ — "a cup of coffee / a glass of water" (measure + genitive)
Скі́льки кошту́є…? — "How much is…?"
Смачно́го! — "Enjoy your meal!"
Дя́кую вам! — "Thank you!" (dative вам)
Раху́нок, будь ла́ска. — "The bill, please."

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