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Questions & Answers about Обід хороший.
Why is there no verb equivalent to “is” in the sentence “Обід хороший.”?
In Ukrainian, especially in the present tense, the linking verb (the equivalent of “is”) is usually omitted. The full idea “Обід (є) хороший.” still means “The lunch is good,” but the verb “є” is understood and therefore left out for simplicity.
How does the adjective “хороший” agree with the noun “обід” in this sentence?
In Ukrainian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. Here, “обід” is a masculine singular noun, so “хороший” is in its masculine singular nominative form. This agreement is essential for proper grammatical structure even though the sentence is very short.
Why aren’t there any articles like “the” before “обід” in the sentence?
Ukrainian does not have articles like “the” or “a/an.” Nouns stand alone without definite or indefinite articles, so “Обід хороший.” directly translates to “Lunch is good” or “The lunch is good” depending on context. The meaning of definiteness is usually understood from the context.
Is the word order in “Обід хороший.” fixed, or can it be rearranged in Ukrainian?
While “Обід хороший.” is a common and straightforward word order, Ukrainian has flexible word order due to its inflectional nature. For instance, you could say “Хороший обід.” which might emphasize “хороший” slightly more. However, the standard unmarked order is typically noun–adjective.
How would you express similar ideas in other tenses, for example, to say “The lunch was good” or “will be good” in Ukrainian?
When expressing the past tense, you would include the verb “був” (was): “Обід був хороший.” For the future tense, you could say “Обід буде хороший.” In these cases, the linking verb is explicitly used since the structure of the sentence changes in tenses other than the simple present.