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Questions & Answers about У кімнаті є стілець.
What does "У кімнаті" mean, and how is it formed?
"У кімнаті" translates as "in the room." In this phrase, "У" is a preposition meaning "in," and "кімнаті" is the locative case of "кімната" (meaning "room"), which is used to indicate location.
What is the role of "є" in this sentence?
"є" functions as an existential verb and corresponds to the English phrase "there is." It’s used to assert the existence or presence of something—in this case, a "стілець" (chair)—in the given location.
Why is there no article like "a" or "the" before "стілець"?
Ukrainian does not have articles. As a result, nouns such as "стілець" appear without any accompanying word to signal definiteness or indefiniteness, unlike in English.
Is the word order in "У кімнаті є стілець" fixed, or can it be rearranged?
While Ukrainian allows for some flexibility in word order, the standard structure for an existential sentence places the phrase indicating location ("У кімнаті") first, followed by the existential marker ("є"), and then the noun ("стілець"). Changing this order may shift the emphasis or cause ambiguity, so it’s best to adhere to the standard order for clarity.
Does the grammatical gender of "стілець" affect its form in this sentence?
Yes, "стілець" is a masculine noun. However, in this sentence no additional modifiers or adjectives require gender agreement, so the form stays the same without any alterations.