Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин.

A careful pronunciation is:

Ми чека́ємо шістдеся́т хвили́н

Approximate pronunciation: my che-KA-ye-mo shees-ty-de-SYAT khvy-LIN

A few notes:

• Ми = my, with a short Ukrainian и sound, not exactly English ee
• ч sounds like English ch
• х is a throaty sound, like the ch in Scottish loch
• The stress falls on:
  • чека́ємо
  • шістдеся́т
  • хвили́н

чекаємо is the 1st person plural present tense form of чекати.

So:

• чекати = to wait
• чекаю = I wait / I am waiting
• чекаєш = you wait
• чекає = he/she/it waits
• чекаємо = we wait / we are waiting

In this sentence, чекаємо tells you the subject is we.

Because Ukrainian often allows the subject pronoun to be left out when the verb ending already makes it clear.

So both are possible:

• Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин.
• Чекаємо шістдесят хвилин.

Both mean the same thing. Including ми can:

• add emphasis
• make the subject extra clear
• sound a bit more explicit

English usually needs we, but Ukrainian often does not.

Because Ukrainian often expresses duration without a preposition.

English:

• We are waiting for sixty minutes

Ukrainian:

• Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин

So шістдесят хвилин directly gives the length of time.

This is very common in Ukrainian:

• Я працюю дві години. = I am working for two hours
• Вони спали десять годин. = They slept for ten hours

Because after 5 and higher numbers, Ukrainian nouns usually take the genitive plural.

So:

• 1 хвилина = 1 minute
• 2 хвилини = 2 minutes
• 3 хвилини
• 4 хвилини
• 5 хвилин
• 10 хвилин
• 60 хвилин

Since шістдесят is 60, the noun must be хвилин.

This is a very important Ukrainian pattern:

• 1

  • nominative singular
    одна хвилина

• 2, 3, 4

  • a special plural form
    дві хвилини, три хвилини, чотири хвилини

• 5 and above

  • genitive plural
    п’ять хвилин, десять хвилин, шістдесят хвилин

So the sentence follows the normal rule perfectly:

• шістдесят хвилин

Yes. Ukrainian word order is more flexible than English.

These are all possible, depending on emphasis:

• Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин.
• Шістдесят хвилин ми чекаємо.
• Ми шістдесят хвилин чекаємо.

The most neutral version is:

• Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин.

Changing the order usually changes focus or emphasis, not the basic meaning.

The form чекаємо is present tense, so it can often correspond to English:

• we wait
• we are waiting

With a duration expression like шістдесят хвилин, English often prefers:

• we have been waiting for sixty minutes or
• we have been waiting for an hour

In Ukrainian, if you want to make the ongoing duration clearer, you often add вже:

• Ми вже шістдесят хвилин чекаємо.
• Ми чекаємо вже шістдесят хвилин.

That gives the sense of:

• We have already been waiting for sixty minutes

чекати is the normal everyday verb for to wait.

Another related verb is очікувати, which is a bit more formal or bookish in many contexts.

Compare:

• Ми чекаємо шістдесят хвилин. = normal everyday speech
• Ми очікуємо шістдесят хвилин. = possible, but often sounds more formal or less natural in casual conversation

So for most learners, чекати is the basic verb to know first.

чекати is imperfective.

That matters because the sentence describes:

• an ongoing action
• a process
• something continuing over time

Waiting is naturally something with duration, so the imperfective verb is exactly what you expect here.

If you are talking about how long someone waits, the imperfective is the normal choice.

Usually, no. You normally need the noun:

• шістдесят хвилин = sixty minutes

Just saying шістдесят would usually sound incomplete unless the unit was already extremely obvious from context.

So the full phrase шістдесят хвилин is the normal form.

Often, yes.

A very natural alternative is:

• Ми чекаємо годину.

That means:

• We are waiting for an hour or
• We have been waiting for an hour

Шістдесят хвилин is perfectly correct, but it can sound a bit more exact or numerical than годину. In everyday speech, годину is often more natural unless the exact number matters.