У книзі шістнадцять сторінок.

This is a very common Ukrainian way to express what English often says with have.

Literally, the sentence is closer to In the book, there are sixteen pages. In natural English, that usually becomes The book has sixteen pages.

So this pattern is normal:

• У книзі ... = In the book ...
• є / are is often omitted in the present tense
• then the quantity is given

A fuller version would be У книзі є шістнадцять сторінок, where є means there is/there are. In everyday Ukrainian, leaving out є here is very common.

Because after у meaning in, Ukrainian uses the locative case for location.

The dictionary form is книга = book.
Its locative singular form is книзі.

So:

• книга = book
• у книзі = in the book

This is one of the first case changes learners meet in Ukrainian.

Here у means in.

Both у and в can often mean the same thing. Very often the choice between them is about sound and ease of pronunciation, not meaning. Ukrainian likes to avoid awkward sound clusters.

In this sentence, у книзі sounds smooth, because книзі begins with a consonant cluster кн-. Using в is not a big meaning change; it is mainly a matter of euphony.

So:

• у = in
• в can also mean in
• the choice is often phonetic, not grammatical in meaning

Because after шістнадцять (sixteen), the noun goes in the genitive plural.

The noun is:

• сторінка = page

Its genitive plural is:

• сторінок

So:

• шістнадцять сторінок = sixteen pages

This is the normal pattern after numbers like 5, 6, 7, ... 20, and also many larger numbers ending in those values.

Ukrainian number-noun patterns are important, and they are not the same as in English.

A simplified version is:

• 1

  • singular:
    одна сторінка = one page

• 2, 3, 4

  • a special plural form:
    дві сторінки, три сторінки, чотири сторінки

• 5 and higher usually + genitive plural:
  п’ять сторінок, шість сторінок, шістнадцять сторінок

So шістнадцять сторінок follows the normal 5+ pattern.

Also note that the teens (11–19) behave as a group, so even though 16 ends in 6, the important thing is that it is a teen number, and сторінок is correct.

Yes, you can think of є as being omitted.

The full sentence can be:

• У книзі є шістнадцять сторінок.

But in present-tense sentences like this, Ukrainian often leaves out є, especially when the meaning is already clear.

So both of these are possible:

• У книзі шістнадцять сторінок.
• У книзі є шістнадцять сторінок.

The version without є is very natural.

Yes, absolutely.

Книга має шістнадцять сторінок means The book has sixteen pages, and it is grammatical and natural.

The difference is mainly in how the idea is framed:

• У книзі шістнадцять сторінок = There are sixteen pages in the book
• Книга має шістнадцять сторінок = The book has sixteen pages

Both are correct. The first one is a very common Ukrainian way to state quantity within something.

Yes. Ukrainian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral version here is:

• У книзі шістнадцять сторінок.

But other orders are possible if you want to emphasize something different:

• Шістнадцять сторінок у книзі. → emphasis on sixteen pages
• Сторінок у книзі шістнадцять. → more marked, often contrastive or stylistic

So the basic meaning stays similar, but the emphasis can shift.

Because Ukrainian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

Whether книга means a book or the book depends on context.

So:

• У книзі шістнадцять сторінок can mean There are sixteen pages in the book
• in another context, it could be understood more generally as in a book

Usually the situation makes it clear which meaning is intended.

A helpful stressed version is:

У кни́зі шістна́дцять сторі́нок.

Approximate pronunciation:

• у = short oo
• кни́зі ≈ KNEE-zee
• шістна́дцять ≈ shees-NAHTs-yat
• сторі́нок ≈ sto-REE-nok

The most useful thing for a learner is to remember the stressed syllables:

• кни́зі
• шістна́дцять
• сторі́нок