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Questions & Answers about Сусідка співає пісню.
What does the suffix -ка in сусідка indicate?
The suffix -ка is a common feminine marker in Ukrainian. Сусідка means “female neighbor,” while the masculine form is сусід (“male neighbor”).
Why is співає used here, and how do you recognize its person and number?
Співає is the 3rd-person singular present-tense form of the imperfective verb співати (to sing). The ending -є signals “he/she/it sings” or “is singing.” Because our subject сусідка is third person singular (“she”), we use співає.
Is співає imperfective or perfective, and what does that imply?
It’s imperfective (infinitive співати). Imperfective verbs describe ongoing, habitual, or incomplete actions. Here it conveys “is singing” (an action in progress), and only imperfective verbs form a present tense in Ukrainian.
Why is пісню in that form instead of пісня?
Пісню is the accusative singular of пісня (song). In Ukrainian, direct objects take the accusative case. Feminine nouns ending in -я change to -ю in accusative (пісня → пісню).
Why aren’t there articles like “a” or “the” in the sentence?
Ukrainian has no definite or indefinite articles. Context decides whether пісню means “a song” or “the song.” If you need to specify “this song,” you’d say цю пісню.
Can you change the word order, for example, move пісню before співає, and does it affect the meaning?
Yes. Ukrainian allows relatively free word order because case endings show each word’s role.
For example: Сусідка пісню співає. still means “The neighbor is singing a song,” but may put slight emphasis on пісню.
How is the sentence stressed and pronounced?
Stress falls on і in Сусідка (су-СІД-ка), on ва in співає (спі-ВА-є), and on ю in пісню (піс-НЮ).
Phonetic approximation: [suˈsʲidka spʲiˈva.je ˈpisnju].