Паросток маленький.

In Ukrainian, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted in simple sentences like this.

So Паросток маленький literally looks like sprout small, but the natural English meaning is The sprout is small.

Compare:

• Паросток маленький = The sprout is small.
• Паросток був маленький = The sprout was small.
• Паросток буде маленький = The sprout will be small.

So the missing is is completely normal here.

It is a complete sentence.

In this sentence:

• паросток is the subject
• маленький is the predicate adjective

Ukrainian allows this kind of present-tense sentence without an expressed verb to be.

That is different from a phrase like маленький паросток, which usually means a small sprout or the small sprout.

Because it has to agree with паросток in gender, number, and case.

Паросток is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective also appears in the masculine singular nominative form: маленький.

Compare:

• маленький паросток = masculine
• маленька рослина = feminine
• маленьке зерно = neuter
• маленькі паростки = plural

A very common clue in Ukrainian is the ending of the noun in its dictionary form.

Паросток ends in a consonant, and nouns that end in a consonant are very often masculine.

So:

• паросток → likely masculine
• therefore маленький must also be masculine

This is a very useful rule of thumb, although there are some exceptions elsewhere in the language.

Both words are in the nominative singular.

• паросток is nominative singular because it is the subject
• маленький is nominative singular because it agrees with the subject in this kind of sentence

So this is the basic dictionary-style form of both words.

The difference is mainly grammatical:

• Паросток маленький = The sprout is small
  This is a sentence.

• маленький паросток = a small sprout / the small sprout
  This is a noun phrase.

So when the adjective comes after the noun here, it is acting as the predicate of the sentence. When it comes before the noun, it is simply describing the noun inside a phrase.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Ukrainian has no articles like a and the, so the language does not force that distinction the way English does.

So паросток can be:

• a sprout
• the sprout

You decide from context. In an isolated example sentence, English often uses the sprout is small, but a sprout is small is also possible in some contexts.

A helpful breakdown is:

• паросток → па-ро-сток
• маленький → ма-лень-кий

A few pronunciation points:

• ь does not have its own sound; it softens the consonant before it
• so in маленький, the н is soft
• the ending -ий is a normal masculine adjective ending; the й is like an English y sound
• the Ukrainian р is usually tapped or lightly rolled, not the English r

So do not try to pronounce ь as a separate vowel. Its job is to make the preceding consonant softer.