У мене болить п’ята.

Because Ukrainian often expresses possession and physical symptoms with a structure like у мене = at me / with me.

So instead of saying something literally like my heel hurts, Ukrainian very naturally says У мене болить п’ята.

This pattern is especially common with body parts and health problems:

• У мене болить голова — my head hurts
• У мене болить рука — my arm hurts

You can say Моя п’ята болить, but that sounds more emphatic or contrastive, as if you are specifically stressing my heel.

Because я is the nominative form, but after у / в you need the genitive form of the pronoun.

So:

• я — I
• мене — of me / me, after certain prepositions and in certain constructions

In у мене, the pronoun must be мене.

Because the grammatical subject of the sentence is п’ята.

In other words, Ukrainian structures this as:

• the heel hurts
• literally: At me hurts heel

So the verb agrees with п’ята, which is singular. That is why you get болить, not a 1st-person form.

Compare:

• У мене болить п’ята — one heel hurts
• У мене болять п’яти — heels hurt

It is in the nominative singular.

That is because п’ята is the subject of болить. Even though English uses my heel, Ukrainian does not mark heel as possessed with a possessive adjective here. Instead, the possession is shown by у мене, while п’ята stays nominative.

The dictionary form is боліти, meaning to hurt, to ache, or to be sore.

In this sentence:

• боліти — infinitive
• болить — 3rd person singular present
• болять — 3rd person plural present

Very common examples:

• болить голова
• болить спина
• болять зуби

The apostrophe shows that the consonant before я is not softened. Instead, я is pronounced with a y-like glide.

So п’ята is pronounced roughly like pya-ta.

Without getting too technical, the apostrophe helps prevent the п from blending into a softened sound before я. This is a very common feature in Ukrainian spelling.

Yes. У мене and в мене mean the same thing here.

Ukrainian often alternates у and в for euphony, meaning speakers choose the version that sounds smoother in context. Both are standard and natural.

So both of these work:

• У мене болить п’ята
• В мене болить п’ята

No, Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible.

У мене болить п’ята is a neutral, natural order. But other orders are possible if you want a different emphasis.

For example:

• У мене болить п’ята — neutral
• П’ята у мене болить — emphasizes heel
• Болить п’ята — possible if the context already makes it clear whose heel it is

So the word order can change, but the basic sentence given is the most straightforward version.

Sometimes yes, if the context already makes it obvious that you are talking about yourself.

For example, if someone asks what hurts, you could simply say:

• Болить п’ята

That can mean My heel hurts in context.

But if you are saying it as a complete sentence on its own, У мене болить п’ята is clearer and more natural.

Yes, very much so.

This is one of the most useful everyday patterns to learn:

• У мене болить + singular body part
• У мене болять + plural body part

Examples:

• У мене болить голова — my head hurts
• У мене болить нога — my leg hurts
• У мене болять зуби — my teeth hurt
• У мене болять очі — my eyes hurt

So У мене болить п’ята follows a very common Ukrainian pattern.