Learn Hardcore Ukrainian: Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку. - She also feels like having cold ice cream in summer.

Вона хоче холодного морозива. = She wants cold ice cream. (personal verb, subject = вона)
Їй хочеться холодного морозива. = She feels like having cold ice cream. (impersonal, dative experiencer)

Both are correct, but Їй хочеться… sounds more about a spontaneous feeling or craving, and a bit softer/less direct than Вона хоче….

What exactly does хочеться mean, and why does it end in -ться / -ся?

Хочеться comes from the verb хотіти (to want), but used in an impersonal reflexive form:

хочеться = it is wanted / one feels like (no real “I/you/she” as the grammatical subject)

The ending -ться (short for -ть + -ся) is the clitic -ся, which often makes verbs:

reflexive (washing oneself): митися – to wash (oneself)
impersonal / “emotional”: мені спиться, мені не сидиться, мені хочеться

In this sentence:

Їй хочеться холодного морозива.
Literally: To her, it is being-wanted cold ice cream.
Natural English: She feels like having cold ice cream.

So хочеться is not just “wants” – it expresses more of an inner mood/desire than a simple factual want.

Why is it морозива and not морозиво?

Морозиво is the base form (nominative singular) for ice cream.

In холодного морозива, the noun is in the genitive singular (морозива), not nominative. Reasons:

The verb pattern:
With хочеться (and some other verbs), an indefinite, “some” amount of a mass noun is often in the genitive.
- Мені хочеться води. = I feel like (some) water.
- Їй хочеться морозива. = She feels like (some) ice cream.
Partitive / “some of” meaning:
Genitive often corresponds to English “some” or “a bit of” a mass noun.

Compare:

Вона хоче морозиво.
(accusative = nominative for inanimate neuter) → She wants [an] ice cream (as an object, like an item to buy).
Їй хочеться морозива.
(genitive) → She feels like having some ice cream (emphasis on the substance, not on a counted item).

So морозива here is genitive singular, not plural, and it signals “some ice cream” under the verb хочеться.

Is морозива plural? How can I tell?

This is tricky because морозива can be:

genitive singular of морозиво (ice cream), and
nominative plural of some neuter nouns ending in -о (though for морозиво, plural forms are much less common and often context-specific).

In this sentence, морозива is genitive singular because:

It follows the pattern хочеться + genitive (some amount of something).
It is modified by холодного in the genitive singular neuter.

So:

холодного морозива = of cold ice cream (genitive singular)
If it were plural (e.g. many different ice creams), you would normally expect a different context and often a different structure, like багато видів морозива (many kinds of ice cream), etc.

Here: not plural, but genitive singular mass noun = “some ice cream”.

Why is it холодного морозива instead of холодне морозиво?

Because холодного must agree in case, number, and gender with морозива.

морозива – neuter, genitive singular
So the adjective холодний must also be genitive singular neuter → холодного

That’s why we get холодного морозива.

If the noun were in a different case, the adjective would match:

(Nom./Acc. sing. neuter): холодне морозиво – cold ice cream (as a direct object, e.g. Я хочу холодне морозиво.)
(Gen. sing. neuter): холодного морозива – (some) cold ice cream (after хочеться, partitive meaning)

So:

Я хочу холодне морозиво. = I want a cold ice cream (object).
Мені хочеться холодного морозива. = I feel like (some) cold ice cream.

What is the role of теж here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Теж means “also / too / as well”.

In Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку, placing теж after їй usually means:

Їй теж… = She also… (in addition to someone already mentioned)

Typical positions and nuances:

Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива.
Focus on her: She also feels like having ice cream (like someone else).
Їй хочеться теж холодного морозива.
Slight shift: she wants ice cream, too (as another item, in addition to something else she wants). This is less common and can sound a bit marked; context needed.
Теж їй хочеться холодного морозива.
Unusual, typically sounds like emphasis or even mild irritation in spoken language, not neutral.

In normal, neutral speech, Їй теж хочеться… is the standard word order.

You can often use теж and також interchangeably (both mean “also”), but:

теж is more colloquial, very common in speech.
також sounds a bit more formal/literary in many contexts.

What form is влітку, and why is it used to mean “in summer”?

Влітку = в + літо → “in summer”.

Base noun: літо – summer (neuter, nominative singular)
Locative form (after в / у, for “in/at” in time/place phrases): в літі → commonly влітку (fused form)

So grammatically, влітку is a locative singular time expression meaning “in summer / during summer.”

Ukrainian often uses such one-word adverbial forms for seasons and parts of the day:

взимку – in winter (from зима)
вдень – in the daytime (from день)
вночі – at night (from ніч)

In this sentence, влітку just adds the time frame: in summer.

Can влітку appear in a different place in the sentence? Does the meaning change?

Yes, word order in Ukrainian is flexible, and влітку can move without changing the core meaning:

Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку.
Влітку їй теж хочеться холодного морозива.
Їй влітку теж хочеться холодного морозива.

All mean essentially the same: She also feels like having cold ice cream in summer.

Differences are mainly in emphasis:

Sentence-initial Влітку… highlights the time (“As for summer, …”).
Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку. is the most neutral, with focus on her and her desire; влітку just comes as extra info at the end.

So yes, you can move влітку around, especially to the start, without any grammatical problem.

How would I say “I also want cold ice cream in summer” using the same pattern?

You can use the same impersonal хочеться + dative pattern:

Мені теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку.
Literally: To me also it is wanted cold ice cream in summer.
Natural: I also feel like having cold ice cream in summer.

If you prefer a simpler, more direct “want” with a normal subject:

Я теж хочу холодного морозива влітку.
I also want (some) cold ice cream in summer.

Both are correct:

Мені хочеться… → emphasizes a feeling, craving.
Я хочу… → straightforward want.

Can I just say Вона хоче холодне морозиво влітку instead? Is it the same?

Вона хоче холодне морозиво влітку. is grammatically correct, but it is not exactly the same in nuance:

Вона хоче холодне морозиво влітку.
Personal verb, subject вона = She wants a cold ice cream in summer (more direct, neutral “want”).
Їй хочеться холодного морозива влітку.
Impersonal, dative їй = She feels like having some cold ice cream in summer (more about inner mood/desire, often a bit softer or more spontaneous-sounding).

So you can use вона хоче…, but the original їй хочеться… is chosen specifically for its impersonal, “craving” feel.

How do you pronounce this whole sentence naturally?

Approximate phonetic guide (simplified):

Їй теж хочеться холодного морозива влітку.
→ [jiːj teʒ ˈxɔt͡sʲet͡sʲa xɔˈlɔdnɔɦɔ mɔrɔˈzɪva ˈwlʲitku]

Piece by piece:

Їй – [jiːj], like “yee” (long) with a soft y at the end.
теж – [teʒ], ж like the “s” in “measure”.
хочеться – [ˈxɔt͡sʲet͡sʲa],
- х = Scottish “ch” in “loch”,
- stress on хо́,
- soft ць [t͡sʲ].
холодного – [xɔˈlɔdnɔɦɔ], stress on ло́, soft дн cluster.
морозива – [mɔrɔˈzɪva], stress on зи́.
влітку – [ˈwlʲitku],
- вл merges into [wl],
- лі is soft [lʲi],
- stress on влі́.

In natural speech, the sentence flows in 3 rhythmic chunks:

Їй теж хо́четься | холо́дного моро́зива | влі́тку.