Я готую смачну страву на кухні.

I am cooking a tasty dish in the kitchen.

Breakdown of Я готую смачну страву на кухні.

• я: I
• смачний: tasty
• готувати: to cook
• страва: the dish
• на: in
• кухня: the kitchen

Questions & Answers about Я готую смачну страву на кухні.

How do you say “I cook” versus “I’m cooking” in Ukrainian? Is there a special continuous form?

Ukrainian does not distinguish a separate continuous tense. The verb готую (1st person singular present of the imperfective готувати) covers both:

• “I cook” (habitual action)
• “I’m cooking” (action in progress)

If you need to stress that something is happening right now, you can add words like зараз (now):
• Я зараз готую смачну страву.

Why is the pronoun Я used at the beginning? Can I leave it out?

Ukrainian is a “pro-drop” language, so the ending -ю in готую already tells you the subject is “I.”
• You can say Готую смачну страву на кухні. and it will still mean “I am cooking a tasty dish in the kitchen.”
• Adding Я makes it clearer or more emphatic: “As for me, I am cooking …”

Why do both смачну and страву end in -у, and what case is that?

They are in the accusative singular (direct-object case) and agree in gender, number and case:

• страву is the accusative form of the feminine noun страва (nominative -а → accusative -у)
• смачну is the accusative feminine singular of the adjective смачний (nominative смачний/смачна → accusative смачну)

What case is кухні, and why do we say на кухні instead of в кухні?

• кухні is the locative (sometimes called prepositional) singular of кухня.
• With locations Ukrainians normally use на
  • locative to mean “in (the) ...”:
    • на кухні – in the kitchen
    • на роботі – at work
    (You might occasionally hear в кухні in some regions, but the standard is на кухні.)

Is the word order in Я готую смачну страву на кухні fixed, or can I rearrange it for emphasis?

Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible because case endings show each word’s role. You could say:
• На кухні я готую смачну страву. – emphasizes where
• Смачну страву я готую на кухні. – emphasizes what
The meaning stays clear, but the focus shifts.

How do you pronounce готую, and is Ukrainian г like English “g”?

• г in Ukrainian is a voiced glottal fricative [ɦ], closer to an English h than a hard g.
• готую is pronounced approximately [ɦo-ˈtu-ju], with stress on the second syllable:
– ho-TU-yu (го-ТУ-ю)
• The letter ю is [ju], like “you” in English.