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Questions & Answers about Ми пам’ятаємо подію.
What part of speech is пам’ятаємо, and what does its form tell us?
пам’ятаємо is a verb in the present tense, first-person plural. It comes from the imperfective verb пам’ятати (to remember). Because it’s imperfective, пам’ятаємо expresses a continuing or habitual action (“we remember” in a general sense), not a single completed event.
Why is подію in the accusative case?
In Ukrainian, the direct object of a transitive verb takes the accusative case. Here, пам’ятаємо requires a direct object (“what are we remembering?”), so подію is the feminine singular accusative form of подія (event).
Can we drop ми, since пам’ятаємо already shows “we”?
Yes. Ukrainian verbs conjugated for person and number often omit the subject pronoun. Including ми adds emphasis or clarity (“we, specifically, remember the event”). Without ми, the sentence Пам’ятаємо подію. is still correct and understood as “We remember the event.”
What is the function of the apostrophe in пам’ятаємо?
The apostrophe signals that the preceding consonant м remains hard (non-palatalized) before the iotated vowel я. After labial consonants (б, п, в, м, ф), Ukrainian uses an apostrophe before я, ю, є, ї to separate the consonant from the “y” sound, so the word is read as /pam-ja-ˈtæɛ̯mo/ rather than palatalizing the м.
Where is the stress in пам’ятаємо, and how do you pronounce it?
The stress falls on the second syllable: pa-м’я́-ta-e-mo. Phonetically: [pɑˈmʲjɑtɑjemo].
Could we use another verb instead of пам’ятати to express “remember”?
Yes, for example:
• згадувати (imperfective) / згадати (perfective) – “to recall,” often with a stronger sense of retrieving a memory
• пригадувати / пригадати – similar to згадувати, somewhat more colloquial
So “We remember the event” could be Ми згадуємо подію or Ми пригадуємо подію, with only slight nuances in style and emphasis.
How would you say “We will remember the event” in Ukrainian?
Since пам’ятати is imperfective, its future tense is formed analytically. You can say:
• Ми будемо пам’ятати подію.
If you want a single completed remembering (perfective), use згадати in the simple future:
• Ми згадаємо подію.