Breakdown of Вмийся холодною водою вранці.
вода
the water
холодний
cold
вранці
in the morning
вмитися
to wash oneself
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Questions & Answers about Вмийся холодною водою вранці.
What is вмийся and why is it in this form?
вмийся is the second-person singular imperative of the perfective reflexive verb вмитися (to wash oneself). Being perfective, it commands you to complete the action (i.e. wash up thoroughly once).
What does the suffix -ся mean in вмийся?
The suffix -ся (or -сь after a vowel) marks the verb as reflexive, meaning the subject performs the action on itself. Without it, you’d be washing something else.
Why use вмийся instead of мийся?
вмийся is the perfective imperative (one complete wash), while мийся is the imperfective imperative (ongoing or repeated washing). Here the speaker wants you to finish washing at once.
Why is холодною водою in the instrumental case?
Ukrainian uses the instrumental case to express the means or instrument of an action. водою and its adjective холодною are both in feminine singular instrumental, literally “with cold water.”
How does the adjective холодною agree with водою?
холодною is the feminine singular instrumental form of холодний (“cold”). It matches the gender, number, and case of водою, which is feminine singular instrumental of вода.
What is вранці and what case or form is it?
вранці is an adverb meaning “in the morning.” Grammatically it comes from the locative (or “prepositional”) form of ранок (“morning”) but functions as a time adverb—no extra preposition needed.
Could you say ранком instead of вранці?
Yes. вранці and ранком both mean “in the morning.” вранці is somewhat more neutral or literary, while ранком is common in spoken style.
How would you make this command polite or plural?
Use the second-person plural/formal imperative вмийтеся. For example: Вмийтеся холодною водою вранці.
Is the word order fixed, or can you rearrange these words?
Ukrainian word order is flexible. You can say Вранці вмийся холодною водою, Холодною водою вмийся вранці, etc., without changing the basic meaning.