Breakdown of Учитель не говорить голосно, бо клас маленький.
Questions & Answers about Учитель не говорить голосно, бо клас маленький.
Говорить is the 3rd person singular form of the verb говорити (to speak / to talk) in the present tense.
Conjugation of говорити in the present:
- я говорю – I speak
- ти говориш – you (sg.) speak
- він / вона / воно говорить – he / she / it speaks
- ми говоримо – we speak
- ви говорите – you (pl./formal) speak
- вони говорять – they speak
The subject is учитель (teacher), which is 3rd person singular (he/she), so the correct verb form is говорить.
Не is the basic negation particle in Ukrainian. It goes directly before the verb it negates:
- говорить – (he/she) speaks
- не говорить – (he/she) does not speak
Word order with не is generally: не + verb. So Учитель не говорить… literally: The teacher not speaks… → The teacher does not speak…
Changing the position changes the meaning or can sound unnatural. For example, Учитель говорить не голосно is possible, but it means The teacher speaks not loudly (emphasis on “not loudly, but somehow else”). In your sentence, we simply negate the action of speaking loudly.
Both бо and тому що mean because and are correct here:
- Учитель не говорить голосно, бо клас маленький.
- Учитель не говорить голосно, тому що клас маленький.
Differences:
- бо is shorter, more informal, and very common in everyday speech.
- тому що is more neutral and often preferred in more formal or written contexts.
Meaning-wise in this sentence, they are effectively the same.
In Ukrainian, a comma is usually placed before бо when it introduces a subordinate clause giving a reason:
- [Учитель не говорить голосно], [бо клас маленький].
The first part is the main clause; the second part (starting with бо) is a subordinate clause explaining the reason. Ukrainian punctuation rules require a comma before most conjunctions that introduce such clauses, and бо is one of them.
Голосно is an adverb meaning loudly. It comes from голос (voice). So literally: with a loud voice / in a loud way.
- говорити голосно – to speak loudly
- говорити тихо – to speak quietly / softly
Гучно also means loudly, but is often used more for sounds, music, noise, etc.:
- гучна музика – loud music
- дуже гучно – very loudly
In everyday speech about how a person speaks, голосно is more typical and natural.
Учитель is the masculine form for teacher.
- учитель – male teacher (or default, grammatically masculine)
- учителька – female teacher
In real usage:
- If you know the teacher is a woman, учителька is increasingly common and natural.
- If you don’t specify gender or are talking in a traditional / neutral way, учитель might still be used, but Ukrainian is actively moving toward using учителька for women.
The grammar in the sentence stays the same; учитель and учителька are both 3rd person singular, so you would still use говорить:
- Учитель не говорить голосно…
- Учителька не говорить голосно…
Both учитель and клас are in the nominative singular:
- Учитель – subject of the first clause (Who does not speak loudly? The teacher.)
- клас – subject of the second clause (What is small? The class.)
In Ukrainian, the nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence, and it is the base dictionary form of the noun. That’s why they look “unchanged” to you.
Маленький is an adjective meaning small. It must agree with the noun клас in:
- gender
- number
- case
Клас is masculine, singular, nominative, so the adjective also takes the masculine singular nominative ending -ий:
- маленький клас – a small class
Other examples:
- маленька кімната (feminine) – a small room
- маленьке місто (neuter) – a small town
- маленькі діти (plural) – small children
So клас маленький literally: the class is small.
Yes, that is grammatically correct:
- Бо клас маленький, учитель не говорить голосно.
This word order is possible and might sound a bit more conversational or emphatic, putting more focus on the reason first:
- Because the class is small, the teacher does not speak loudly.
The meaning is the same. Ukrainian word order is relatively flexible, but the original version (Учитель не говорить голосно, бо клас маленький) is the most neutral.
Учитель is pronounced approximately as [Ú-chy-telʹ], with the stress on the first syllable:
- У́читель – Ú-chi-tel
Details:
- у – like oo in look (shorter)
- чи – like chee in English cheese (but shorter)
- те – like te in tell
- soft ль at the end – similar to ly in million, but palatalized
So: У́-чи-тель.
They are related but used differently:
- говорити – to speak, to talk (continuous / general action)
- Учитель говорить голосно. – The teacher speaks loudly.
- казати – to say, to tell (imperfective)
- Учитель каже, що… – The teacher says that…
- сказати – to say, to tell (perfective, one-time completed act)
- Учитель сказав, що… – The teacher said that…
In your sentence, we describe how the teacher speaks in general, so говорити is the natural choice. Казати / сказати would sound like focusing on specific statements rather than the manner of speaking.
Ukrainian simple present often covers both English “speaks” (habitual) and “is speaking” (right now), depending on context.
- Учитель не говорить голосно…
- can mean: The teacher does not speak loudly (in general / as a rule).
- or, in the right context: The teacher is not speaking loudly (right now).
In this sentence, since we’re talking about the class being small, it sounds more like a general habit: the teacher generally doesn’t speak loudly in that situation.
Yes, the nuance is different:
Учитель не говорить голосно…
- Basic negation of the whole action “speaking loudly”.
- Natural translation: The teacher does not speak loudly…
- Focus: He simply doesn’t do this (doesn’t speak loudly).
Учитель говорить не голосно…
- Emphasis on the adverb не голосно.
- Implication: He does speak, but not loudly (perhaps quietly, softly).
- Closer to: The teacher speaks not loudly (implying some contrast: not loudly, but in another manner).
Both are correct, but the first is more neutral and typical.