Мені потрібна хвилина.

In Ukrainian, “to need something” isn’t expressed with a transitive verb taking a nominative subject and accusative object as in English. Instead, the person who needs something goes into the dative case.

• мені is the dative form of я (“I”) and literally means “to me.”
• The thing needed (here хвилина) is the grammatical subject in nominative.

The sentence breaks down as follows:

1. мені – dative pronoun (“to me”)
2. потрібна – predicate adjective (fem. sing. nom.)
3. хвилина – subject noun (fem. sing. nom.)
   Literally: “To me is needed a minute.”

Yes, that uses the impersonal neuter form потрібно, which doesn’t change for gender or number. It’s often used with numerals or general necessities:

• Мені потрібно ще дві хвилини.
  For a single feminine noun you’ll more precisely match gender with потрібна, but потрібно remains grammatically acceptable.

Place не before the adjective (or impersonal form):

• Мені не потрібна хвилина.
  = “I don’t need a minute.”

Use the same pattern, change the pronoun and add a question mark:

• Тобі потрібна хвилина?
  Here тобі is the dative of ти (“you”).

With numerals you typically use the impersonal потрібно + dative pronoun + numeral + noun in proper case:

• Мені потрібно дві хвилини. (“two minutes”)
• Мені потрібно п’ять хвилин. (“five minutes”)
  Note: numerals 2–4 often pair with the genitive singular or special plural form depending on the noun, and 5+ with genitive plural.

потребувати is a regular transitive verb meaning “to require” and takes a genitive object:

• Я потребую допомоги. – “I need help.”
  It sounds more formal or literary. In everyday speech, especially about time, Ukrainians prefer мені потрібна/потрібно.