Recognizing Verb Forms in the Wild | Ukrainian Grammar

When you read Ukrainian, the verbs change shape constantly, and at first that's bewildering — you look up a word and the dictionary form isn't what's on the page. But here's the good news: every verb form wears a recognizable badge. A verb in the past tense announces itself with -в / -ла / -ло / -ли; the future wears -му or rides in front with бу́ду; the infinitive ends in -ти; a reflexive verb tacks on -ся. Reading Ukrainian verbs is mostly a matter of spotting the badge, reading off the tense/mood, and stripping it back to the dictionary form. This page teaches you those badges so that an unfamiliar verb becomes a quick decode rather than a roadblock.

The infinitive: -ти (the dictionary form)

Start here, because it's your home base. The infinitive — the form you find in a dictionary — ends in -ти: чита́ти ("to read"), роби́ти ("to do"), писа́ти ("to write"), іти́ ("to go"). When you finally strip a conjugated verb back down, -ти is what you're aiming to recover.

Я люблю́ чита́ти ввечері.

I love to read in the evening. (чита́ти — the infinitive, ending in -ти; this is the dictionary form.)

Тре́ба ще бага́то зроби́ти сього́дні.

There's still a lot to do today. (зроби́ти — infinitive in -ти, after the predicative тре́ба.)

The present tense: two ending-sets

A present-tense verb carries a personal ending that tells you who is doing it. Ukrainian has two conjugation patterns, and they differ in their theme vowel — -е- versus -и-.

Person	1st conjugation (-е-)	2nd conjugation (-и-)
я	чита́ю	говорю́
ти	чита́єш	гово́риш
він/вона́	чита́є	гово́рить
ми	чита́ємо	гово́римо
ви	чита́єте	гово́рите
вони́	чита́ють	гово́рять

The reading shortcut: a -е- running through the endings (-еш, -е, -емо, -ете) signals the 1st conjugation; an -и- (-иш, -ить, -имо, -ите) signals the 2nd. Either way, the personal ending tells you the subject even when the pronoun is dropped.

Вона́ чита́є газе́ту, а ми гово́римо по телефо́ну.

She's reading the paper, and we're talking on the phone. (чита́є — 1st conj -е; гово́римо — 2nd conj -и; the endings mark он 'she' and 'we'.)

Що ти ро́биш сього́дні вве́чері?

What are you doing this evening? (ро́биш — 2nd conjugation -иш marks 'you', singular informal.)

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To recover the dictionary form from a present-tense verb, drop the personal ending and find the matching infinitive: чита́ю → чита́ти, гово́рить → говори́ти. The theme vowel usually carries over, but the safe move is to recognize the verb and confirm its -ти form.

The past tense: -в / -ла / -ло / -ли (gendered, no person)

The past tense is the easiest badge to spot and the most surprising for English speakers. A past-tense verb ends in -в, -ла, -ло, -ли — and crucially, it does not mark person; it marks gender and number. So "I read," "you read," and "he read" all use the same masculine form чита́в; the difference is whether the doer is masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural.

Ending	Agrees with	Example (чита́ти)
-в	masculine singular	він чита́в
-ла	feminine singular	вона́ чита́ла
-ло	neuter singular	воно́ чита́ло
-ли	plural (any gender)	вони́ чита́ли

Він чита́в, а вона́ писа́ла листа́.

He was reading, and she was writing a letter. (чита́в — masc -в; писа́ла — fem -ла; same tense, gender shows on the ending.)

Ми вже все зроби́ли й пішли́ додо́му.

We already did everything and went home. (зроби́ли, пішли́ — both plural past in -ли, no gender distinction in the plural.)

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If a verb ends in -ла / -ло / -ли, it's certainly past tense — those endings exist nowhere else. The masculine -в is the one to learn deliberately, because it comes from an old -л that softened to -в (so чита́в pairs with чита́ла). Strip it and add -ти: чита́в → чита́ти.

The future: бу́ду + infinitive, or the -му form

Ukrainian has two futures, and both have a clear badge. The analytic future is бу́ду / бу́деш / бу́де… + infinitive (бу́ду чита́ти "I will read"). The synthetic future fuses the infinitive with a -му ending (чита́тиму "I will read") — the same meaning, one word, the marker -му / -меш / -ме.

Analytic (two words)	Synthetic (one word)	Meaning
бу́ду чита́ти	чита́тиму	I will read
бу́деш роби́ти	роби́тимеш	you will do
бу́де писа́ти	писа́тиме	he/she will write

За́втра я бу́ду працюва́ти вдо́ма.

Tomorrow I'll be working from home. (бу́ду + працюва́ти — the analytic future, бу́ду plus the infinitive.)

Я чита́тиму цю кни́жку ці́лий ти́ждень.

I'll be reading this book all week. (чита́тиму — the synthetic future; the -ти-му badge sits inside the word.)

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The -му future is a great strip-to-lemma case: робитиму → робитиму, drop the -му and you have the infinitive роби́ти right there. The -му future is literally the infinitive with -му welded on, so the dictionary form is hiding in plain sight.

The conditional: past form + би / б

The conditional ("would do") is the past-tense form plus the particle би (or б after a vowel). The badge is the floating би / б sitting near a -в/-ла/-ло/-ли verb. It signals hypothetical or polite-wish meaning, not real past time.

Я б залюбки́ прийшо́в, але́ не мо́жу.

I'd gladly come, but I can't. (прийшо́в is the past form, but б makes it conditional 'would come', not real past.)

Вона́ зателефонува́ла б, якби́ ма́ла твій но́мер.

She'd call if she had your number. (зателефонува́ла б — conditional; past form + б.)

The imperative: -й / -и / -те

A command (imperative) is short and pointed. The singular badge is -й after a vowel (чита́й "read!") or -и after a consonant cluster (іди́ "go!", скажи́ "say!"); the plural/polite adds -те (чита́йте, іді́ть, скажі́ть).

Чита́й уголо́с, будь ла́ска.

Read aloud, please. (чита́й — imperative in -й, addressed to one person informally.)

Скажі́ть, будь ла́ска, де тут метро́?

Could you tell me where the metro is, please? (скажі́ть — polite/plural imperative with -те.)

The reflexive badge: -ся

Finally, a tail that rides on any of the above. -ся (sometimes -сь) on the end of a verb makes it reflexive — the action turns back on the subject, or the verb is one that simply requires -ся. You read it as a unit: умива́тися ("to wash oneself"), усміха́тися ("to smile"), здава́тися ("to seem"). The -ся stays attached through all tenses: умива́юся, умива́вся, умива́тимуся.

Вона́ усміха́ється, ко́ли його́ ба́чить.

She smiles when she sees him. (усміха́ється — present + the reflexive -ся on the very end.)

Мені́ здає́ться, що бу́де дощ.

It seems to me it's going to rain. (здає́ться — a verb that only exists with -ся; read the -ся as part of the lemma здава́тися.)

Putting it together: strip to the lemma

The reading routine is one move: spot the badge, name the form, strip it to the infinitive.

You see…	Badge → form	Strip to dictionary form
чита́тиму	-му → synthetic future	чита́ти
прочита́в	-в → past, masc	прочита́ти
роби́тимеш	-меш → future, 'you'	роби́ти
усміха́лася	-ла + -ся → past, fem, reflexive	усміха́тися
скажі́ть	-і́ть → imperative, polite	сказа́ти

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker, the deep contrast is where the information lives. English marks tense with separate words (will read, would read, have read) and barely changes the verb itself; person almost never shows ("I/you/we read"). Ukrainian fuses the information into the ending: tense, person (in the present/future), and even gender (in the past). The flip side is that each form has a clean, repeating marker — so once you know the badges, you can read tense, mood, and aspect-cue off the tail at a glance, then strip back to the -ти dictionary form. English has no past-tense gender marking at all, which is why -ла / -ло / -ли feels so foreign — and so useful, since it tells you who acted even with the pronoun dropped.

Common Mistakes

❌ Reading вона́ чита́в as correct (masc form with a feminine subject)

Incorrect — the past agrees in gender: вона́ чита́ла, not чита́в.

✅ Вона́ чита́ла.

She was reading — feminine -ла agrees with вона́.

❌ Looking up чита́тиму under чита́тиму in a dictionary

Incorrect — strip the future -му: the dictionary form is чита́ти.

✅ чита́тиму → чита́ти

future чита́тиму strips to the infinitive чита́ти.

❌ Treating ро́биш as past tense

Incorrect — -иш is a present-tense personal ending ('you'), not past; the past would be роби́в/роби́ла.

✅ ти ро́биш = present, ти роби́в = past

-иш marks present 'you'; -в/-ла marks the past.

❌ Ignoring the -ся and looking up усміха́ється as усміха́ти

Incorrect — the -ся is part of the verb: the lemma is усміха́тися.

✅ усміха́ється → усміха́тися

keep the -ся: the dictionary form is усміха́тися.

Key Takeaways

The infinitive ends in -ти — that's the dictionary form you strip back to.
Present: personal endings, theme vowel -е- (1st conj) or -и- (2nd conj), marking the subject.
Past: -в / -ла / -ло / -ли — marks gender and number, not person.
Future: бу́ду + infinitive (analytic) or -му / -меш welded onto the infinitive (synthetic).
Conditional = past form + би / б; imperative = -й / -и (+ -те); reflexive = a trailing -ся.
Reading routine: spot the badge, name the form, strip to the -ти dictionary form.

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