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Questions & Answers about Вчора в мене боліла нога.
What does вчора mean, and how is it pronounced?
вчора is an adverb meaning yesterday. The stress falls on the first syllable: вЧО-ра.
What does в мене mean, and why is it used here?
в мене literally means at me. In Ukrainian you use у мене болить… or colloquially в мене болить… to express that something aches you (i.e. “my … hurts”). It marks the person experiencing the pain.
Why is the verb боліла in the past tense and in feminine form?
Because the verb agrees with the grammatical subject нога, which is feminine singular. боліла is the past-tense form of боліти in the third person feminine singular.
Why is нога in the nominative case and not in another case?
Here нога is the subject of боліти (the thing that hurts), so it takes the nominative. The experiencer (you) is marked separately with в мене.
Why don’t we say я боліла instead of в мене боліла нога?
Ukrainian expresses pain by making the body part the subject and the person the experiencer. You don’t say “I was hurting,” you say literally “the leg was hurting to me.”
Can I use мені instead of в мене (for example, Мені вчора боліла нога)? Are they the same?
Yes. мені is the pure dative pronoun, so Мені вчора боліла нога is correct and a bit more formal. в мене (or у мене) is a prepositional alternative used in colloquial speech.
Is the word order in Вчора в мене боліла нога fixed, or can I rearrange it?
Word order in Ukrainian is flexible. You can also say Нога вчора в мене боліла, В мене боліла нога вчора, or Вчора боліла в мене нога. Different orders shift the emphasis.
Why isn’t there a possessive pronoun like моя before нога?
Because в мене already indicates possession/experiencer. You could say Моя нога вчора боліла, but that construction focuses more on the leg itself rather than the experience of pain.
What’s the difference between боліти and хворіти in Ukrainian?
боліти means to ache or to hurt (used with body parts, e.g. болить голова – my head hurts). хворіти means to be ill or to suffer from a disease (e.g. хворіти на грип – to have the flu).
What’s the nuance if I said заболіла instead of боліла?
боліла (imperfective) means was hurting (the ongoing state of pain). заболіла (perfective) means began to hurt or got a pain (focus on the onset). So Вчора в мене боліла нога describes the ache during yesterday, while Вчора в мене заболіла нога stresses that the pain started yesterday.