Proverb: «Не май сто гри́вень, а май сто дру́зів»

This is one of the friendliest proverbs to learn early, because three core A2 structures sit in plain view: the imperative май ('have!'), the rule that сто ('a hundred') forces the genitive plural on whatever it counts, and the не…, а… frame for 'not X, but rather Y.' One short, warm line, and you walk away able to give commands, count in tens and hundreds, and correct a statement.

Ukrainians say this to remind someone — or themselves — that people matter more than cash: to a friend who always turns up when needed, or to gently tease someone too focused on earning. This is the modern гри́вня-version, named for Ukraine's current currency, the гри́вня. The older and equally famous wording uses карбо́ванців ('coins'); for that variant, and the full note on which currency word is standard, see «Не май сто карбо́ванців, а май сто дру́зів». Here we focus on the A2 grammar, with гри́вень as our counted noun.

Word by word

The two halves are mirror images: same imperative май, same numeral сто, two different counted nouns in the genitive plural — гри́вень and дру́зів — and the pivot а swinging the meaning from 'not this' to 'but that.'

The grammar

май — the imperative of «ма́ти»

Май is the command form of ма́ти ('to have'). You build it from the present-tense stem ма- plus the imperative ending -й: ма-й → май ('have!'). It is the 2nd person singular — the form you use with one person you address as ти. The proverb uses it twice: first under не as a prohibition ('don't have'), then on its own as a positive command ('have').

To turn an imperative into a prohibition you simply put не in front of it, exactly as the proverb does. For how the imperative is formed across verb types, see The Imperative: Formation.

сто + genitive plural — the number controls the noun

Here is the rule English speakers find hardest to believe: in Ukrainian, the number decides the case of the noun it counts. After сто ('a hundred') — and after п’ять (5) and every higher number that isn't a compound ending in 1–4 — the counted noun jumps into the genitive plural. So 'a hundred hryvnias' is сто гри́вень (genitive plural of гри́вня), and 'a hundred friends' is сто дру́зів (genitive plural of друг) — never the nominative plural сто гри́вні / сто дру́зі.

The two endings are different because the nouns are different genders:

• гри́вня is feminine, and feminine -я nouns take a zero ending in the genitive plural — the -я simply drops, leaving гри́вень (with a fleeting е inserted to break up the consonants: гри́вн- → гри́вень).
• друг is masculine, and masculine nouns typically take -ів: друз- + -ів → дру́зів (with the regular г → з softening before the ending).

Compare what the small numbers do: 2, 3, 4 take the nominative plural (дві гри́вні, три дру́зі), but 5 and up flip to the genitive plural (п’ять гри́вень, сто дру́зів). See Numerals and the Genitive, the agreement summary in Numeral Agreement, and the ending mechanics in Genitive Plural: Forms.

A note on дру́зів — animacy in disguise

There is a small bonus lesson hiding in дру́зів. Друг ('friend') is animate (it names a living being), and for animate masculine nouns the accusative looks like the genitive. So I see a hundred friends is also …сто дру́зів (genitive-shaped accusative), while for an inanimate thing like гри́вня the form after сто is genitive plural for both 'I have' and 'I see.' In this proverb both nouns are simply genitive plural after сто, but дру́зів previews the animacy pattern you will meet again and again.

The corrective contrast «не…, а…»

The hinge of the whole proverb is а. Ukrainian has two words for English 'but': але́ (general contrast, 'but / however') and а (a corrective 'but rather / and instead'). When you reject one option and put another in its place — not X, but Y — you must use а, never але́. The frame не X, а Y stages a deliberate swap: turn down the hundred hryvnias, choose the hundred friends.

In each, а marks the replacement after a negation — swapping in але́ here would be wrong. For the full set of joining words and the а vs але́ split, see Coordinating Conjunctions (І/Й, А, Але, Та).

Glossary

• ма́ти — 'to have'; imperative май (sg) / ма́йте (pl). Note: the same spelling ма́ти also means 'mother' (a different word) — context tells them apart.
• гри́вня — the hryvnia, Ukraine's currency since 1996; feminine, genitive plural гри́вень (the historic Kyivan-Rus unit also bore this name). One hryvnia is divided into 100 копі́йок.
• друг — 'friend' (a close one), masculine animate; nominative plural дру́зі, genitive plural дру́зів (note г → з). A more casual word is при́ятель ('mate, pal').

Common Mistakes

Using the nominative plural after a big number is the classic numeral error. Сто forces the genitive plural; see numeral-agreement errors.

After a negation, the replacing clause is joined by the corrective а, never але́.

The proverb gives a command, so the verb is the imperative май, not the indicative ма́єш.

As a plain counting numeral, сто does not change; only the counted noun goes genitive plural.