Verb Reference: Є / Немає (there is / there isn't) | Ukrainian Grammar

This is not a verb paradigm — it is a reference for two of the most important words in everyday Ukrainian: є ("there is / there are") and its negation нема́є / нема́ ("there isn't / there aren't"). Є is the one present-tense form of бу́ти ("to be") that the language keeps in active use; in ordinary "X is Y" sentences бути disappears entirely (you say Я студе́нт, not Я є студе́нт), but є survives wherever you assert that something exists or that someone has something. Its negation is irregular and, crucially, governs the genitive. Get this pair right and you can say what exists, what is missing, and what you own — the backbone of beginner Ukrainian.

The core split: kept є vs dropped copula

Ukrainian present-tense "to be" splits in two:

Identity / description ("X is Y") — the copula is dropped. Він лі́кар ("He [is] a doctor"), Не́бо си́нє ("The sky [is] blue").
Existence / possession ("there is X" / "someone has X") — the copula survives as є. У па́рку є о́зеро ("There is a lake in the park"), У ме́не є кни́га ("I have a book").

Він лі́кар, а вона́ вчи́телька.

'He is a doctor, and she is a teacher.' — pure identity, so 'to be' is dropped; no є.

У па́рку є о́зеро.

'There is a lake in the park.' — existence, so є is kept; о́зеро stays in the nominative.

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The test is simple: if you can replace "is" with "exists" or "there is," keep є. If "is" just links a thing to a label or a quality, drop it. Он [є] лі́кар? No — he merely is a doctor (identity), so no є. Чи є тут лі́кар? Yes — "is there a doctor here?" (existence), so є stays.

Present tense — the existential є

In the existential meaning, є is invariant: it is used for all persons and both numbers. There is no єсть, no separate plural — just є. (The full old paradigm of бути survives only in frozen, bookish forms.)

Meaning	Form	Example
there is / there are	є	Тут є вода́. — "There's water here."
there isn't / there aren't	нема́є (нема́)	Тут нема́є води́. — "There's no water here."

With є the existing thing is the grammatical subject and stays in the nominative: є вода́, є о́зеро, є друзі.

У хо́лодильнику є молоко́ й я́йця.

'There's milk and eggs in the fridge.' — є is invariant; молоко́ and я́йця are nominative subjects of existence.

Чи є тут ві́льне мі́сце?

'Is there a free seat here?' — чи opens a yes/no question; є + nominative ві́льне мі́сце asks about existence.

Negation — нема́є / нема́ + the GENITIVE

The negative is not не є. It is the special, fused form нема́є (or its shorter twin нема́, equally standard and very common in speech). And here is the rule that trips up every English speaker: нема́є governs the genitive, not the nominative. What is absent goes into the genitive — this is the genitive of absence, a sub-case of the genitive of negation.

Statement	Negation
Є вода́. (nom.) — "There's water."	Нема́є води́. (gen.) — "There's no water."
Є час. (nom.) — "There's time."	Нема́є ча́су. (gen.) — "There's no time."
Є гро́ші. (nom. pl.) — "There's money."	Нема́є гро́шей. (gen. pl.) — "There's no money."

Сього́дні в магази́ні нема́є хлі́ба.

'There's no bread in the shop today.' — нема́є + genitive хлі́ба (the absent thing goes into the genitive).

У ме́не нема́ ча́су, вибач.

'I've no time, sorry.' — нема́ (the short form of нема́є) + genitive ча́су.

Both нема́є and нема́ are correct standard Ukrainian. Do not use the Russian нет — it is not a Ukrainian word in this sense. See the genitive of negation and the genitive of absence.

Possession — У + genitive + є / немає

Ukrainian has no verb "to have" as its main possession strategy. Instead it says, literally, "by/at someone there is a thing": У + genitive (the owner) + є + nominative (the thing). The owner is in the genitive (governed by the preposition у), and the possessed thing is the nominative subject of є.

У ме́не є кни́га.

'I have a book.' — literally 'by me there is a book'; у + genitive ме́не for the owner, є + nominative кни́га for the thing.

У них є дво́є діте́й і соба́ка.

'They have two children and a dog.' — у + genitive них; є + nominative subjects; дво́є governs the genitive діте́й.

To say someone does not have something, swap є for нема́є and — the key step — flip the possessed thing from nominative into the genitive:

У ме́не нема́є кни́ги.

'I don't have a book.' — у + genitive ме́не (owner) and нема́є + genitive кни́ги (the missing thing).

У ньо́го нема́є бра́та.

'He doesn't have a brother.' — нема́є + genitive бра́та; the masculine animate бра́т → бра́та in the genitive.

So the full possession pair is: У ме́не є кни́га (nominative) → У ме́не нема́є кни́ги (genitive). The owner's genitive never changes; only the possessed noun switches case with the polarity. See existential and possessive sentences.

Past tense — був / була́ / було́ / були́

In the past, the copula reappears in full and agrees with the existing thing in gender and number: був (m.), була́ (f.), було́ (n.), були́ (pl.). For absence, the negated past is не було́ — fixed in the neuter — and it still takes the genitive.

Gender / number of the thing	"there was"	"there was no" (+ gen.)
masculine	був	не було́
feminine	була́	не було́
neuter	було́	не було́
plural	були́	не було́

На столі́ була́ кни́га.

'There was a book on the table.' — past existential agreeing with feminine кни́га → була́.

Учо́ра в ме́не не було́ ча́су.

'Yesterday I had no time.' — negative past не було́ (always neuter) + genitive ча́су.

Note the asymmetry: positive past agrees (був, була́, було́, були́), but negative past is always the neuter не було́, regardless of the missing thing's gender, plus the genitive. Кни́ги не було́ ("there was no book"), гро́шей не було́ ("there was no money") — both не було́.

Future tense — бу́де / не бу́де

The future works the same way. For existence and possession the future is бу́де ("there will be"); its negation is не бу́де ("there won't be"), again with the genitive. For a plural existing thing you may hear бу́дуть, but in the impersonal "there will be" frame бу́де is the standard, invariant choice.

За́втра бу́де дощи́к, ві́зьми парасо́льку.

'There'll be a bit of rain tomorrow, take an umbrella.' — future existential бу́де + nominative дощи́к.

На збо́рах не бу́де дире́ктора.

'The director won't be at the meeting.' — negative future не бу́де + genitive дире́ктора.

So across all three tenses the pattern is consistent — positive keeps the nominative, negative forces the genitive:

Tense	"There is X" (nom.)	"There is no X" (gen.)
Present	є вода́	нема́є води́
Past	була́ вода́	не було́ води́
Future	бу́де вода́	не бу́де води́

Usage notes

є answers "does it exist / is there?" — never use it as a copula in "X is Y" identity sentences (Я студе́нт, not Я є студе́нт).
нема́є and нема́ are interchangeable; нема́ is a little more colloquial, but both are fully standard.
The owner in possession is always у + genitive: у ме́не, у те́бе, у ньо́го, у не́ї, у нас, у вас, у них.
A pronoun owner sometimes appears as the bare dative in set phrases (Мені́ нема́ чого́ роби́ти — "I have nothing to do"), but the everyday possession frame is у + genitive.
For the existence of processes or in more formal registers, існува́ти ("to exist") may replace є; see жити / бути / існувати and the full бути reference.

Common Mistakes

❌ У ме́не нема́є кни́га.

Incorrect — нема́є governs the genitive, so the missing thing must be кни́ги, not the nominative кни́га.

✅ У ме́не нема́є кни́ги.

Correct — 'I don't have a book,' нема́є + genitive кни́ги.

❌ У ме́не є кни́ги.

Incorrect (for 'I have a book') — with є the thing is a nominative subject, so use кни́га; кни́ги would mean 'books' or the genitive.

✅ У ме́не є кни́га.

Correct — 'I have a book,' є + nominative кни́га.

❌ Тут не є мі́сця.

Incorrect — the negative existential is the fused нема́є, never не є.

✅ Тут нема́є мі́сця.

Correct — 'there's no room here,' нема́є + genitive мі́сця.

❌ Учо́ра не була́ води́.

Incorrect — the negative past existential is always the neuter не було́, regardless of gender.

✅ Учо́ра не було́ води́.

Correct — 'there was no water yesterday,' не було́ + genitive води́.

❌ Я є студе́нт.

Incorrect — identity sentences drop the present copula; є is for existence, not 'X is Y.'

✅ Я студе́нт.

Correct — 'I'm a student,' with no copula at all.

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One sentence holds the whole system: positive є / був / бу́де keeps the NOMINATIVE; negative нема́є / не було́ / не бу́де forces the GENITIVE. Є час → нема́є ча́су; була́ кни́га → не було́ кни́ги; бу́де вода́ → не бу́де води́. If you remember that negation drags the noun into the genitive, you will never say нема́є вода́ again.

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