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Questions & Answers about Ручка гарна.
What is the meaning of the sentence Ручка гарна.?
It means “The pen is beautiful.” In this sentence, ручка means pen and гарна means beautiful. The overall statement tells you that the pen is attractive.
Why is there no verb like “is” in the sentence?
In Ukrainian, the present-tense form of the verb “to be” is usually omitted because it’s understood by context. So "Ручка гарна." implicitly means "The pen is beautiful." without needing an explicit verb.
How does the adjective гарна agree with the noun ручка?
Ukrainian adjectives must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case. Here, ручка is a feminine singular noun, and гарна is the corresponding feminine singular form of the adjective, ensuring proper agreement.
Why does the adjective appear after the noun instead of before it like in English?
Word order in Ukrainian is more flexible than in English. In this case, гарна functions as a predicate adjective that follows the subject. While adjectives can sometimes come before nouns, in predicate positions (where they describe the subject after it), they typically follow the noun.
Does the flexible word order affect the overall meaning of sentences in Ukrainian?
Not really. While Ukrainian allows for a flexible word order because the grammatical cases indicate each word’s role, the essential meaning usually remains clear through agreement between nouns and adjectives. In "Ручка гарна.", the clear noun–adjective agreement and context show that the pen is beautiful, regardless of the word order variations that might be used for emphasis or style.