Ти знаєш, де лікарня?

Do you know where the hospital is?

Breakdown of Ти знаєш, де лікарня?

• ти: you
• де: where
• знати: to know
• лікарня: the hospital

Questions & Answers about Ти знаєш, де лікарня?

What is the role of Ти in this sentence, and can it be omitted?

Ти is the second-person singular pronoun “you.” It marks the subject of the verb знаєш (“know”). In informal speech, Ukrainian often drops the subject pronoun because the verb ending already indicates person and number. So you can say simply:
• Знаєш, де лікарня?
and the meaning remains “Do you know where the hospital is?”

Why is there a comma before де?

The comma separates the main clause (Ти знаєш) from the subordinate (indirect) question introduced by де. In Ukrainian, you always put a comma before clauses beginning with interrogative conjunctions (де, коли, як, чому, etc.) when they depend on a verb like знати, питати, говорити.

Why isn’t there any form of “to be” (like є) in де лікарня?

In present-tense Ukrainian, the copula бути is normally omitted. The full version would be де (є) лікарня?, but speakers drop є in everyday speech. If you include it, you get a more emphatic or formal style:
• Ти знаєш, де є лікарня?

What case is лікарня, and why?

Here лікарня is in the nominative case because it functions as the subject of the implied clause де (є) лікарня. Even though “where” questions often think about location, you’re really asking “Where is the hospital?”, and лікарня remains nominative.

Ukrainian has no articles. How would someone express “the hospital”?

Correct—Ukrainian does not use definite or indefinite articles. Context tells you that лікарня means “the hospital.” If you needed emphasis or to point out a specific hospital among many, you might add a demonstrative:
• ця лікарня (“this hospital”)
• та лікарня (“that hospital”)

Why use де here and not куди or звідки?

• де = “where” (location)
• куди = “to where” (destination)
• звідки = “from where” (origin)
You ask де лікарня? because you want its location. If you asked куди лікарня?, it would mistakenly imply “to where is the hospital moving?”

How would you make this question polite or plural?

Replace ти знаєш with ви знаєте (formal singular or plural “you”):
• Ви знаєте, де лікарня?

What’s the difference between this indirect question and the direct question “Where is the hospital?”

Direct: Де лікарня? (Just the subordinate clause, with question intonation.)
Indirect: Ти знаєш, де лікарня? (Main clause “Do you know” + subordinate clause “where the hospital is.”)
Notice that the subordinate part uses the same word order as the direct question.

Can чи be used here to mark the yes–no question?

Yes–no questions often begin with чи, but when you start with a personal pronoun or verb, чи can be omitted. These are all correct:
• Чи ти знаєш, де лікарня?
• Чи знаєш ти, де лікарня?
• Ти знаєш, де лікарня?
In everyday speech the last form (without чи) is very common.