Я читаю газету на вулиці.

I read a newspaper on the street.

Breakdown of Я читаю газету на вулиці.

• я: I
• читати: to read
• на: on
• вулиця: the street
• газета: the newspaper

Questions & Answers about Я читаю газету на вулиці.

Why is there no article equivalent to the or a in the sentence Я читаю газету на вулиці.?

Ukrainian does not use articles. Context and word order often tell you whether something is definite or indefinite. So газету can mean “a newspaper” or “the newspaper” depending on the situation, without adding a separate word for “the” or “a.”

What case is газету in, and why does газета change to газету here?

Газету is in the accusative singular feminine case. In Ukrainian, the accusative marks the direct object of a verb. Feminine nouns ending in -а take -у in the accusative if they are inanimate, so газета becomes газету.

What case is вулиці in, and why is it used after на?

Вулиці here is in the prepositional (sometimes called locative) case, which is used with location prepositions like на. Prepositional singular for many feminine nouns ends in -і, so вулиця (“street”) becomes вулиці to mean “on the street.”

What does the preposition на express in на вулиці? Could I use a different preposition for “on the street”?

In this sentence, на + prepositional expresses location (“on” or “at”). You would not use в here because в takes the prepositional for enclosed spaces (e.g. в кімнаті “in the room”). To say “on the street,” you always use на вулиці. Another preposition, по, with instrumental (e.g. по вулиці) means “along the street” or “down the street,” implying movement.

Does Я читаю mean “I read” or “I am reading”? How does Ukrainian handle continuous actions?

Ukrainian does not have a separate continuous tense. The present tense of an imperfective verb (here читати) covers both simple present and progressive meanings. So Я читаю газету can be translated as either “I read a newspaper” (habitual) or “I’m reading a newspaper” (right now), depending on context.

Can I change the word order to На вулиці я читаю газету? Would that affect meaning?

Yes, you can say На вулиці я читаю газету without changing the core meaning. Ukrainian word order is relatively flexible; moving на вулиці to the front simply shifts the emphasis more strongly onto the location.

How do you pronounce вулиці, and where is the stress?

Вулиці is pronounced [ˈwulɪtsʲi], with the stress on the first syllable: VU-li-tsi. The final -і sounds like the “ee” in “see.”

What’s the difference between на вулиці and вулицею?

• На вулиці (prepositional) means “on the street” (location).
• Вулицею (instrumental) means “along the street” or “by means of the street” (movement or instrument). So you read на вулиці, but you could walk вулицею (walk along the street).