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Questions & Answers about Кіт сидить під столом.
Why is столом in the instrumental case rather than the nominative?
Because the preposition під when expressing a static location (“under” somewhere) requires the instrumental case. The noun стіл (nominative) takes the instrumental ending -ом on its stem стол-, giving столом.
What is the infinitive of сидить, and how is this verb conjugated in the present tense?
The infinitive is сидіти (“to sit”). It belongs to the second conjugation (infinitives ending in -іти). In the present tense you remove -іти and add the endings:
• я сиджу
• ти сидиш
• він/вона сидить
• ми сидимо
• ви сидите
• вони сидять
So сидить is the third‐person singular form.
Why does сидить end in -ить?
Because it’s the third person singular present‐tense ending for second-conjugation verbs. Second-conjugation verbs in Ukrainian take -ить (3rd sg), whereas first-conjugation verbs take -е or -є.
Why is there no word for the or a before кіт?
Ukrainian does not use definite or indefinite articles. The noun кіт can mean “a cat” or “the cat” depending on context, without adding any extra word.
Why is Кіт capitalized at the beginning of the sentence?
Just like in English, the first word of every Ukrainian sentence is capitalized. Кіт is not a proper name here; it’s simply the sentence’s first word.
Could you change the word order? For example, say Під столом сидить кіт instead?
Yes. Ukrainian has relatively flexible word order. The default is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), but fronting під столом (Under the table) emphasizes location: Під столом сидить кіт reads “Under the table sits a cat,” highlighting “under the table.”
How do you form the instrumental singular for a masculine noun like стіл?
For most masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant, you take the stem and add -ом. Here the stem is стол-, so стіл → стол + -ом = столом.