Learn Hardcore Ukrainian: Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти. - To be healthy, you need to sleep well and eat properly.

Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти.

To be healthy, you need to sleep well and eat properly.

Breakdown of Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти.

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Ukrainian grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Ukrainian now

Questions & Answers about Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти.

In this sentence, what exactly does щоб mean, and how is it different from just saying “to be healthy”?

Щоб is a conjunction that usually means “in order to” or “so that” and introduces a purpose clause.

Щоб бути здоровим = “In order to be healthy” / “So that (one) is healthy”
It explains the goal of the actions that follow.

Comparisons:

Бути здоровим потрібно… – grammatically possible, but now “to be healthy” is more like a topic: “To be healthy, it is necessary…”
Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно… – clearly purpose: “In order to be healthy, (it is) necessary…”

So щоб adds that idea of purpose/aim, not just “to” as a plain infinitive marker.

Why is it бути (“to be”) and not some other form like є?

Бути here is the infinitive (“to be”), because after щоб in Ukrainian you can either:

Use a full clause with a conjugated verb:
- Щоб ти був здоровий, потрібно… – “So that you are healthy, it is necessary…”
Or use щоб + infinitive, which is more compact and a bit more neutral/generic:
- Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно… – “In order to be healthy, it is necessary…”

Using the infinitive бути keeps the subject general—it’s not “I” or “you” specifically; it’s a general statement.

Why is it здоровим and not здоровий?

Здоровим is the instrumental case of the adjective здоровий (“healthy”) in the masculine singular.

In Ukrainian, after бути (“to be”) when describing a state/role, you can use the instrumental case for the predicate:

бути здоровим – “to be healthy”
бути вчителем – “to be a teacher”
бути щасливою – “to be happy” (for a woman; more on this next)

So:

здоровий – nominative (dictionary form)
здоровим – instrumental masculine singular

Here здоровим functions as “(being) healthy” in that instrumental predicate structure.

Does здоровим change for female speakers or plural? How would that work?

Yes, the ending changes with gender and number, because it’s an adjective in the instrumental case.

Masculine singular: здоровим
- Щоб бути здоровим… (when talking about a man or in a generic/neutral way)
Feminine singular: здоровою
- Щоб бути здоровою, потрібно… (said by/about a woman)
Plural (all genders): здоровими
- Щоб бути здоровими, потрібно… (talking about “we/you/they” as a group)

In this kind of general health advice, the masculine form здоровим is often used in a generic sense (“to be healthy (in general)”), but you can adjust it if you clearly refer to a female or to a group.

What kind of word is потрібно? Is it a verb like “need” or “must”?

Потрібно is not a verb; it’s an impersonal predicative word (often called a “short-form adverb” in grammar explanations). It behaves a bit like English “it is necessary”.

In this sentence:

потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти
= “(it is) necessary to sleep well and eat properly”

There is no grammatical subject (no “I/you/we”). Ukrainian often uses such impersonal constructions:

Мені потрібно спати. – “I need to sleep.” (literally “To me it is necessary to sleep.”)
Нам потрібно працювати. – “We need to work.”

So потрібно doesn’t conjugate like a verb (я потрібную etc. does not exist). It stays потрібно in this function.

What is the difference between потрібно and треба here? Could we say треба instead?

Yes, you could say:

Щоб бути здоровим, треба добре спати і правильно їсти.

Differences:

потрібно – a bit more neutral/formal, “it is necessary”
треба – more colloquial/common, like “you/one should” or “you have to”

Both are very common in everyday speech. In many contexts they are interchangeable; here, the choice is mostly about style, not grammar.

Why do we use the infinitive (спати, їсти) after потрібно? Could we use another form?

After impersonal predicates like потрібно / треба / слід, Ukrainian normally uses the infinitive to express what is necessary:

потрібно спати – it is necessary to sleep
треба працювати – one needs to work
слід вчитися – one should study

So:

потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти
literally: “it-is-necessary well to-sleep and correctly to-eat”

Using a conjugated form like ми спимо or ми їмо after потрібно here would be ungrammatical. The infinitive is the standard pattern.

What is the role of добре and правильно? Why are they not добрий and правильний?

Добре and правильно are adverbs:

добре – “well” (from the adjective добрий – “good”)
правильно – “correctly / properly” (from правильний – “correct”)

They describe how you should do the actions:

добре спати – to sleep well
правильно їсти – to eat properly / to have a proper diet

If you used the adjectives добрий, правильний, you would be describing nouns, not actions, e.g.:

добрий сон – a good sleep
правильне харчування – proper nutrition

Here we’re modifying verbs, so we need the adverb forms.

Could the word order be changed? For example, can we say: Потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти, щоб бути здоровим?

Yes. Both orders are natural:

Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти.
Потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти, щоб бути здоровим.

The meaning is the same; it’s just a different focus:

Version 1 starts with the goal (“In order to be healthy…”), then gives the conditions.
Version 2 starts with what is necessary to do, then adds the result/goal at the end.

Both are very common patterns in Ukrainian.

Why is there a comma after здоровим?

The comma separates:

the subordinate clause of purpose: Щоб бути здоровим (“In order to be healthy”),
from the main clause: потрібно добре спати і правильно їсти.

In Ukrainian, subordinate clauses introduced by щоб (and many other conjunctions) are normally set off by commas from the main clause, regardless of whether they come first or second:

Щоб бути здоровим, потрібно…
Потрібно… , щоб бути здоровим.

So the comma is required by standard punctuation rules.

Why are спати and їсти imperfective verbs here? Could we use perfective forms instead?

Спати (“to sleep”) and їсти (“to eat”) are imperfective because the sentence talks about:

regular, repeated, or ongoing habits (“you should regularly sleep well and eat properly”),
not about a one-time result.

Imperfective aspect in Ukrainian is used for:

habitual actions: спати щоночі – to sleep every night
processes: довго спати – to sleep for a long time

Perfective forms (like поспати, поїсти) would sound wrong here, because those usually mean “to sleep/eat once, finished”, and we’re talking about continuous lifestyle habits, not one-time events.

What does правильно їсти really imply? Literally it’s “to eat correctly” – is that natural in Ukrainian?

Yes, правильно їсти is a very natural collocation in Ukrainian, and it usually means:

“to eat properly / in a healthy, balanced way,”
not just “to use the fork correctly”.

So in context:

правильно їсти = “to have a proper diet / to follow healthy eating habits”

Literally it’s “to eat correctly,” but in health-related advice it is normally understood as “to eat in a healthy, sensible way.”

What does і mean here, and could we use та instead?

І means “and”:

добре спати і правильно їсти – “to sleep well and eat properly”

You can often replace і with та:

добре спати та правильно їсти

Differences:

і – the most common, neutral “and.”
та – also means “and”, often used:
- for style/variety in written language,
- sometimes where і might be a bit awkward phonetically.

In this sentence, both і and та are correct; і is simply more common in everyday speech.