На вулиці слизько.

It is slippery outside.

Breakdown of На вулиці слизько.

• на: on
• вулиця: the street
• слизько: slippery

Questions & Answers about На вулиці слизько.

Why is there no “to be” (є) in this sentence?

Ukrainian usually drops the present-tense form of бути (“to be”). So На вулиці слизько literally reads “On the street slippery,” which equals “It is slippery outside.” You normally don’t add є with predicative adverbs like слизько. Do use є to state existence of a noun: На вулиці є лід (“There is ice outside”).

What case is вулиці and why?

It’s Locative singular (місцевий відмінок), required by на when you mean “on/at” a place (static location). Compare:

• на вулиці = on the street (location)
• на вулицю = onto the street (direction, Accusative)
• з вулиці = from the street (Genitive)

Why use на instead of в/у here?

Ukrainian uses на with open surfaces/areas: на вулиці (on the street), на дорозі (on the road), на площі (on the square). У/в вулиці would sound like “inside a street,” so it’s not idiomatic here.

What part of speech is слизько?

It’s a predicative adverb meaning “slippery” as a general state. It comes from the adjective слизький (“slippery”) and is used in impersonal sentences (no subject). It doesn’t change for gender or number.