Breakdown of У вільній країні кожному не страшно говорити те, що він думає.
Questions & Answers about У вільній країні кожному не страшно говорити те, що він думає.
У вільній країні is in the locative case (also called prepositional).
- країна (country) – nominative singular
- країні – locative singular
- вільна (free, fem. sg.) – nominative
- вільній – locative singular feminine
We use the locative case after the preposition у / в when we talk about being in a place or situation:
- у школі – in (the) school
- у місті – in (the) city
- у вільній країні – in a free country
The adjective must match the noun in gender, number, and case, so вільна країна → у вільній країні.
In Ukrainian, в and у are two forms of the same preposition (in, at, into). The choice is mostly phonetic: speakers alternate them to make pronunciation smoother.
- Before a consonant cluster where в would be hard to pronounce, у is preferred.
- Also, two identical consonants in a row (в вільній) sound awkward.
So you get:
- у вільній країні (not в вільній країні)
- в Україні (because в
- У is easy to pronounce)
Often, you could technically use either, but у вільній sounds much more natural than в вільній.
Кожному comes from кожен (each, every).
- кожен – nominative masculine singular
- кожному – dative masculine singular
Here it’s in the dative case because of the construction with страшно / не страшно:
- кому страшно? – who is scared? (literally: “to whom is it scary?”)
- кожному не страшно – it is not scary for everyone / to each person.
More examples of the same pattern:
- мені страшно – I’m scared (literally: to me it is scary)
- дітям сумно – children are sad (to children it is sad)
- кожному легко – it is easy for everyone.
So кожному is required by the impersonal predicate (не) страшно.
Both are possible, but they’re different structures:
кожному не страшно говорити…
- Impersonal construction: literally “for each person it is not scary to speak…”.
- Focuses on the general feeling / atmosphere: fear is absent.
кожен не боїться говорити…
- Personal construction: “each person is not afraid to speak…”.
- Grammatically fine, but less idiomatic here and can sound a bit heavier.
Ukrainian very often uses these impersonal constructions with an adverb-like word:
- мені холодно – I’m cold
- нам було весело – we had fun
- кожному не страшно – no one is afraid / everyone feels safe
The sentence chosen is the most natural way to express this idea.
Не страшно is not a verb. It is a predicative adverb / short-form predicate, built from the adjective страшний (scary).
- страшний – scary (adjective, masc.)
- страшно – (it is) scary (predicative, neuter form)
In impersonal sentences, Ukrainian often uses these forms to make a “mini-predicate”:
- страшно – it’s scary
- не страшно – it’s not scary
- важко – it’s hard
- легко – it’s easy
So не страшно functions as the main predicate of the sentence:
- (У вільній країні) кожному не страшно (говорити…)
→ literally: “In a free country, for each person, it is not scary (to speak…).”
This is an impersonal sentence: there is no grammatical subject in the nominative. The “experiencer” (the one who feels something) is expressed in the dative case:
- мені страшно – I’m scared (to me it is scary)
- тобі цікаво – you are interested (to you it is interesting)
- кожному не страшно – everyone is not scared (to each person it is not scary)
So instead of a subject + verb like in English (Everyone is not afraid), Ukrainian uses:
- a predicative word (страшно)
- a dative noun/pronoun to show who feels it (кожному)
No pronoun вони is needed or natural here.
Yes, that’s grammatically correct and understandable:
- У вільній країні кожному не страшно говорити…
- Кожному у вільній країні не страшно говорити…
Both are fine. The difference is slight emphasis:
- Starting with У вільній країні highlights the place / type of country.
- Starting with Кожному highlights each person.
Word order in Ukrainian is fairly flexible, but the original order is the most neutral and natural for this sentence.
Говорити is an imperfective verb meaning to speak, to talk, to say (in general, continuously).
- говорити – to speak, to talk (process, ongoing activity)
- казати – to say, to tell (also imperfective, but slightly more about a specific message)
- сказати – to say, to tell (perfective, one completed act)
In не страшно говорити те, що він думає:
- говорити focuses on the ability / freedom to speak, not on one specific act.
- If you said не страшно казати, it’d be a bit more about saying specific things. Still possible, but говорити is more general and fits better with ideas like freedom of speech.
Те, що він думає literally means “that which he thinks” or simply “what he thinks”.
- те – that (neuter singular pronoun)
- що – that / which (here a conjunction introducing a clause)
The pattern is:
- те, що + clause → that which / what + clause
Examples:
- я кажу те, що знаю – I say what I know
- роби те, що любиш – do what you love
So in your sentence:
- говорити те, що він думає – to say what he thinks / to speak his mind.
Що here is not just a pronoun meaning what; it acts as a subordinating conjunction introducing an entire clause.
- те, що він думає – that which he thinks (full clause: він думає)
- яке would be a relative adjective pronoun modifying a noun, not a clause.
Compare:
- книга, яку він читає – the book which he is reading (яку refers to книга)
- те, що він читає – what he is reading (що він читає is a whole clause)
Since “what he thinks” is a full clause, що is the correct choice.
In Ukrainian, masculine singular is often used as a generic form for “a person” when gender is not specified. So:
- той, хто працює, той їсть – whoever works, eats
- кожен має робити, що він вважає правильним – everyone should do what they think is right
Here, він doesn’t literally mean “a male person”; it stands for “a person / anyone” in a generalized way.
If you really want to be explicitly inclusive, you can use alternatives like:
- говорити те, що люди думають – to say what people think
- говорити те, що кожен думає – to say what each person thinks
But він думає is standard and natural as a generic reference.
In Ukrainian, a comma is usually placed before що when it introduces a subordinate clause.
- Я знаю, що він прийде. – I know that he will come.
- Скажи мені, що ти хочеш. – Tell me what you want.
In те, що він думає:
- що він думає is a subordinate clause clarifying what те refers to.
- Therefore, a comma is required: те, що він думає.
У вільній країні нікому не страшно говорити те, що він думає is also correct and very natural.
Literally: “In a free country, it is not scary for anyone to say what he thinks.”
- кожному не страшно – everyone is not afraid (more positive: for each person it is not scary)
- нікому не страшно – no one is afraid (negative form with нікому + не, Ukrainian allows and likes double negation)
The general meaning is very similar: in a free country, people are not afraid to say what they think. The nuance:
- кожному slightly stresses inclusion (“each person”).
- нікому slightly stresses absence of fear (“no one is afraid”).
Both are idiomatic.
Yes, that sentence is grammatical and understandable:
- У вільній країні кожен не боїться говорити те, що він думає.
But there are some nuances:
- кожен не боїться is less idiomatic than кожен не боїться говорити… would be if you were contrasting with someone who does fear. In a general statement about freedom, кожному не страшно sounds more natural.
- не боїться is a personal verb construction (subject кожен
- verb).
- не страшно is impersonal and feels more like describing a general atmosphere rather than individual bravery.
So you can use не боїться, but the original кожному не страшно говорити те, що він думає is smoother and more idiomatic for describing freedom of speech.