Questions & Answers about Ми купили полуницю й малину.
Why are полуницю and малину singular, even though English usually says strawberries and raspberries?
In Ukrainian, names of fruit and berries are often used as mass nouns when you mean some amount of that food, especially after verbs like buy, eat, pick, and so on.
So:
- Ми купили полуницю й малину. = We bought strawberries and raspberries.
- Literally, it is more like We bought strawberry and raspberry produce.
This is very natural in Ukrainian. English usually prefers the plural here, but Ukrainian often prefers the singular.
The plural forms also exist:
- полуниці = strawberries
- малини = raspberries
But in a sentence about buying food in general, the singular is often the most natural choice.
Why do полуницю and малину end in -ю and -у instead of their dictionary forms?