Лікар оглянув хребет.

Because лікар is the subject of the sentence, it is in the nominative singular — the basic dictionary form.

A few useful points:

• лікар is a grammatically masculine noun
• in this sentence, the verb оглянув is also masculine, so the doctor is understood as male
• if the doctor were female, you could see:
  • Лікарка оглянула хребет.
  • Лікар оглянула хребет.
    This is also possible in real Ukrainian, because лікар can refer to a woman too, depending on style and context.

Оглянув is a past tense masculine singular form.

In Ukrainian, past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• оглянув — he examined
• оглянула — she examined
• оглянуло — it examined
• оглянули — they examined

So лікар оглянув tells you the subject is singular and masculine.

The infinitive is оглянути.

This verb is perfective, which means it presents the action as completed: the doctor examined the spine and finished doing so.

Its imperfective partner is оглядати. Compare:

• Лікар оглянув хребет. — the doctor examined the spine (completed event)
• Лікар оглядав хребет. — the doctor was examining / examined the spine (process, duration, or repeated background action)

This perfective vs. imperfective contrast is very important in Ukrainian.

Even though хребет is the direct object, it does not change in form here because it is a masculine inanimate singular noun.

In Ukrainian, for masculine inanimate nouns:

• nominative = accusative

So:

• nominative: хребет
• accusative: хребет

That is why the object looks unchanged.

A useful comparison:

• Я бачу хребет. — I see the spine.
• Я бачу лікаря. — I see the doctor.

Here лікаря changes because лікар is animate.

It can mean either a doctor or the doctor, depending on context.

Ukrainian has no articles like a/an and the. So definiteness is usually understood from the situation, previous sentences, or general context.

So Лікар оглянув хребет could mean:

• A doctor examined the spine
• The doctor examined the spine

Context tells you which one is meant.

Because оглянути normally takes a direct object.

So you say:

• оглянути хребет — examine the spine

with no preposition.

This is different from a verb like дивитися:

• дивитися на хребет — look at the spine

So оглянути is more like examine/inspect, while дивитися на is just look at.

Yes. Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible because case endings help show what each word is doing.

The most neutral order here is:

• Лікар оглянув хребет.

Other orders are possible, but they change the emphasis:

• Хребет оглянув лікар. — emphasizes who examined it
• Оглянув хребет лікар. — more literary or marked
• Хребет лікар оглянув. — emphasizes хребет

So the original sentence is the most straightforward, neutral version.

Not exactly.

• хребет = spine / backbone / spinal column
• спина = back

So in a medical or anatomical sentence, хребет is the more precise word if you mean the spinal column itself.

Compare:

• У мене болить спина. — My back hurts.
• Лікар оглянув хребет. — The doctor examined the spine.

Because Ukrainian often leaves that kind of information to context.

If the situation is already clear — for example, a doctor examining a patient — just saying хребет is often enough.

If you want to make possession explicit, you can:

• Лікар оглянув його хребет. — The doctor examined his spine.
• Лікар оглянув хребет пацієнта. — The doctor examined the patient’s spine.

So the short sentence is natural; it simply does not specify the owner of the spine.