Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Ukrainian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Хто читає книгу?
What does the sentence “Хто читає книгу?” mean, and how is it structured?
It translates as Who is reading the book? The sentence is structured with хто as the interrogative pronoun (acting as the subject), читає as the present tense, third-person singular form of the verb “to read,” and книгу as the direct object in the accusative case.
Why is хто used in this sentence, and does it always serve as the subject?
Yes, хто is an interrogative pronoun meaning “who,” and here it functions as the subject that is performing the action. In Ukrainian, when asking about a doer of an action, хто is used in the subject position without needing an additional pronoun.
How is the verb читає conjugated, and why is it in the third-person singular form?
Читає is the third-person singular conjugation of the verb читати (to read) in the present tense. Even though the subject is an interrogative pronoun (хто), it is treated as singular in Ukrainian grammar, so the standard third-person singular form is used.
What role does книгу play in the sentence, and why does its form change from the basic form of the noun?
Книгу is the direct object, meaning “book.” In Ukrainian, nouns that serve as direct objects take the accusative case. For the feminine noun книга, the accusative form is книгу, which reflects the typical case ending change for this category of nouns.
Is the word order in “Хто читає книгу?” similar to that in English, and what can learners note about it?
Yes, the word order is quite similar to English: the interrogative pronoun (subject) comes first, followed by the verb and then the object. However, learners should note that Ukrainian typically relies on its case system to indicate grammatical roles, which can allow for flexible word order in other contexts, even though a clear interrogative structure like this one follows an order that is easy to recognize.