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Questions & Answers about Кіт м'який.
What is the English translation of Кіт м'який?
It translates as "The cat is soft." Notice that in Ukrainian the present-tense form of the verb "to be" is omitted, so the sentence lacks an explicit equivalent of "is."
Why doesn’t the sentence include a word for "is" like in English?
In Ukrainian, the copula (the form of "to be") is typically left out in the present tense because the state of being is understood from context. This is a common feature of many Slavic languages.
How do the noun Кіт and the adjective м'який agree grammatically?
Both words are in the nominative case and agree in gender and number. Кіт is a masculine singular noun, so the adjective м'який is also in the masculine singular form, which ensures proper agreement.
What is the function of the apostrophe in м'який?
The apostrophe indicates that the consonant м should not be automatically palatalized by the following я. It signals that я is pronounced as a separate sound (roughly like "ya"), ensuring the correct pronunciation of м'який.
Can the word order be changed—say, putting the adjective before the noun—and what would that imply?
Yes, Ukrainian word order is relatively flexible. For example, you could also say "М'який кіт". While both orders convey that the cat is soft, switching the order might slightly change the emphasis. In Кіт м'який, the adjective serves as a predicate after the subject, whereas М'який кіт might be used more as a descriptive noun phrase.