By B1 you are writing whole paragraphs, and the punctuation rules English gave you will quietly betray you. Ukrainian punctuates dialogue, quotations, numbers, and even capital letters differently — and crucially, two of its rules are grammatically obligatory rather than stylistic: the dash that stands in for a missing "is," and the comma that must precede subordinators like що and який. Get those two wrong and a Ukrainian reader registers an error, not a quirk. This page covers the orthographic conventions; the clause-internal comma rules that depend on sentence structure are developed in Syntax.
Quotation marks: guillemets first, then „low–high“
English quotes look like "this." Ukrainian uses guillemets « » (called "ялинки," little fir-trees) as the primary quotation marks, and the „low–high“ pair as the inner (nested) quotation. The order is the reverse of the German default but the shapes are the same.
| Level | Marks | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Outer (primary) | « » | «цитата» |
| Inner (nested) | „ “ | „цитата“ |
Він сказа́в: «Я ще ніко́ли не чита́в ціє́ї кни́жки».
He said: 'I have never read this book before.' — primary quotation in guillemets « », and note ніко́ли (never), not the Russian никогда.
У статті́ було́ напи́сано: «Дире́ктор назва́в прое́кт „прори́вом“ ро́ку».
The article read: 'The director called the project the breakthrough of the year.' — guillemets outside, „low–high“ for the nested quote.
Straight ASCII quotes ("…") are tolerated in casual typing but are not the standard; in careful writing use the guillemets.
Dialogue: the dash, not quotation marks
When you write direct speech in a narrative or dialogue, Ukrainian (like Russian and French) does not wrap each line in quotation marks. Instead, each new speaker's line opens with an em dash — at the start of the line, and the narrator's attribution ("he said," "she asked") is set off by dashes too.
— Приві́т, — сказа́в він. — Як спра́ви?
'Hi,' he said. 'How are you?' — a dash opens the speech, a comma + dash frames the 'he said', and a new dash resumes.
— Ти вже́ ї́в? — запита́ла ма́ма.\n— Ще ні, — відпові́в я.
'Have you eaten yet?' Mum asked. 'Not yet,' I answered. — each speaker's turn starts on a new line with a dash.
The pattern inside one line is: — [speech], — [attribution]. The comma belongs to the speech, then the dash, then the lowercased "сказа́в / запита́ла." This is one of the most visible differences from English-style dialogue and worth drilling early.
The dash that means "is": Ukrainian's missing copula
Here is the rule that surprises every learner. Ukrainian has no present-tense form of "to be" in ordinary equational sentences — there is no everyday word for "is/are" linking a subject to a noun complement. Where English says "Kyiv is the capital," Ukrainian says "Kyiv — the capital," and that dash literally stands in for the missing verb.
Ки́їв — столи́ця Украї́ни.
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine. — the dash replaces 'is'; there is no verb in the sentence at all.
Моя́ сестра́ — лі́кар.
My sister is a doctor. — noun = noun, joined by a dash, no copula.
Украї́нська мо́ва — одна́ з найкраси́віших слов’я́нських мов.
Ukrainian is one of the most beautiful Slavic languages. — the dash carries the meaning 'is'.
The dash appears specifically when both sides are nouns (or noun phrases / infinitives). It is not used when the predicate is an adjective: Київ велики́й ("Kyiv is big") needs no dash, because adjectives link directly. Learn the contrast:
Ки́їв — столи́ця.
Kyiv is the capital. — noun = noun → dash.
Ки́їв вели́кий.
Kyiv is big. — noun + adjective → NO dash, no verb, just juxtaposition.
The obligatory comma before subordinators
In English the comma before a subordinate clause is often optional and stylistic. In Ukrainian it is a hard grammatical rule: a comma must separate a subordinate or relative clause from the main clause. In practice this means you put a comma before the subordinating words — most importantly що (that), який (which/who), щоб (so that / in order to), бо (because), and коли (when) — and before relative clauses generally.
Я зна́ю, що ти ма́єш ра́цію.
I know that you're right. — comma before що is mandatory; English drops it, Ukrainian never does.
Це кни́жка, яку́ я чита́в учо́ра.
This is the book that I read yesterday. — comma before який (here яку́) introducing the relative clause.
Я прийшо́в, бо хоті́в тебе́ поба́чити.
I came because I wanted to see you. — comma before бо.
Зателефону́й мені́, коли́ бу́деш удо́ма.
Call me when you're home. — comma before коли.
Я зроби́в це, щоб ти не хвилюва́вся.
I did it so that you wouldn't worry. — comma before щоб.
The full, structure-dependent comma rules (multiple clauses, participial phrases, comparison clauses) belong to syntax — see subordinate clause types. What you need at B1 is the reflex: if a clause starts with one of those words, a comma comes before it.
Numbers: decimal comma, space for thousands
Ukrainian follows the continental European convention, the reverse of English in both respects:
- The decimal separator is a comma: 3,14 (= English 3.14).
- The thousands separator is a (thin) space, not a comma: 1 000 000 (= English 1,000,000).
Число́ пі дорі́внює приблизно 3,14.
The number pi equals approximately 3.14. — note the decimal COMMA, not a period.
У мі́сті живе́ понад 1 000 000 люде́й.
Over 1,000,000 people live in the city. — thousands grouped with spaces, no commas.
So an English "3.14" and "1,000,000" become a Ukrainian "3,14" and "1 000 000" — the comma and period swap roles.
Lowercase: months, days, nationalities, languages
This is the single most persistent English-transfer error, so it gets its own warning. English capitalises a whole category of words that Ukrainian writes in lowercase:
- Months: сі́чень (January), лю́тий (February), бе́резень (March)… — all lowercase.
- Days of the week: понеді́лок (Monday), вівто́рок (Tuesday)… — all lowercase.
- Nationalities and the adjectives from them: украї́нець (a Ukrainian person), украї́нський (Ukrainian, adj.), францу́з (a French person), німе́цький (German, adj.) — all lowercase.
- Names of languages: украї́нська (мо́ва) (Ukrainian), англі́йська (English) — lowercase.
У понеді́лок, два́дцятого сі́чня, почина́ється семе́стр.
On Monday, the twentieth of January, the semester begins. — both понеді́лок and сі́чень are lowercase.
Він украї́нець і чудо́во гово́рить англі́йською.
He is a Ukrainian and speaks English wonderfully. — both the nationality (украї́нець) and the language (англі́йською) are lowercase.
Мене́ ціка́вить німе́цька літерату́ра та францу́зьке кіно́.
I'm interested in German literature and French cinema. — the adjectives німе́цька / францу́зьке are lowercase.
Country names and proper personal/place names are capitalised (Украї́на, Ки́їв, Тара́с Шевче́нко) — it is specifically the derived words (the people, the adjectives, the language) and the calendar words that drop the capital. Full capitalisation rules live on the capitalization page.
How this differs from English — the two things that bite hardest
Most of the rules above are "different but harmless if forgotten." Two are not:
- The dash-as-copula (Київ — столиця) is grammatical. English has no equivalent because English always supplies "is"; Ukrainian forbids the verb and substitutes the dash. Forgetting it produces a sentence that reads as broken.
- The obligatory comma before що / який is grammatical. English trained you to treat that comma as optional; Ukrainian does not. This is the most frequent punctuation error English speakers make in Ukrainian.
Over-capitalising nationalities, months, and languages is the most frequent spelling transfer error — harmless to comprehension, but an instant tell that the writer is thinking in English.
Common Mistakes
❌ Київ є столиця України.
Incorrect — Ukrainian has no present-tense 'is' here; don't insert є in a plain noun=noun equation. Use the dash.
✅ Ки́їв — столи́ця Украї́ни.
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine — the dash replaces the missing copula.
❌ Я знаю що ти маєш рацію.
Incorrect — a comma is mandatory before що.
✅ Я зна́ю, що ти ма́єш ра́цію.
I know that you're right — comma before що.
❌ У Понеділок, в Січні, я їду до Львова.
Incorrect — months and days are not capitalised in Ukrainian.
✅ У понеді́лок, у сі́чні, я ї́ду до Льво́ва.
On Monday, in January, I'm going to Lviv — both lowercase.
❌ Вона Українка і вивчає Англійську мову.
Incorrect — nationalities and language names are lowercase: українка, англійську.
✅ Вона́ украї́нка і вивча́є англі́йську мо́ву.
She is a Ukrainian and is learning English — both lowercase.
❌ Pi = 3.14, населення 1,000,000
Incorrect — Ukrainian uses a decimal comma and a space for thousands: 3,14 and 1 000 000.
✅ 3,14 і 1 000 000
The comma and period swap roles compared with English.
Key Takeaways
- Quotation marks: primary « », nested „ “ — not English "curly quotes."
- Dialogue opens each line with an em dash —, with dashes framing the "he said."
- The dash replaces the missing present-tense "is" between two nouns (Київ — столиця) — but not before an adjective (Київ великий). This is grammatical.
- A comma is obligatory before subordinators що, який, щоб, бо, коли and relative clauses — not optional as in English.
- Numbers use a decimal comma (3,14) and a space for thousands (1 000 000).
- Months, days, nationalities, adjectives, and language names are lowercase — the most common English-transfer error.
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
- Capitalization RulesB1 — Ukrainian capitalization differs sharply from English: days, months, nationalities, and languages are all lowercase, and titles capitalize only the first word — the mirror image of English habits.
- Types of Subordinate Clause: An OverviewB2 — A map of the Ukrainian subordinate-clause system — complement (що 'that', чи 'whether'), relative (який, що, котрий), and adverbial clauses of time, cause, purpose, condition and concession — showing that every subordinate clause is overtly introduced by a conjunction AND set off by a comma, and that the clause type dictates the verb form (future after коли, past + би after якби, past after щоб with a different subject).
- Relative Clauses (Який, Що, Хто)B1 — How Ukrainian builds 'the house we saw,' 'the woman I spoke with,' 'the city I was born in.' The relativizer який agrees with its antecedent in gender and number but takes its CASE from its role inside the relative clause, so one word points two ways at once; the comma before it is obligatory; prepositions front (з якою, в якому) and are never stranded; the invariant що is the colloquial subject/object option; and той, хто / те, що build headless relatives.
- Word Order: Free but Not RandomA1 — Ukrainian word order is flexible because case endings (not position) mark grammatical roles — but the freedom is pragmatic: the neutral order is Subject–Verb–Object, and you front the known topic and end with the new, emphasized information.
- Inserting Articles and the CopulaA1 — The two opposite English-transfer traps every beginner falls into: (1) supplying a word for 'a/the' — Ukrainian has NO articles, so add nothing (книга is already 'a/the book'); and (2) supplying 'is/are' in plain predication — there is no present copula (Він студе́нт, not *Він є студе́нт). Yet є IS needed for existence and possession (У ме́не є…), so the rule is: no article ever, no copula in predication, but keep є for 'there is' and 'have'.