Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня.

My teacher helps me every day.

Breakdown of Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня.

• мій: my
• допомагати: to help
• мені: me
• щодня: every day
• учитель: the teacher

Questions & Answers about Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня.

What does мій mean exactly, and how would it change with other genders or numbers?

Мій means my and agrees with the noun in gender, number, and (in more complex sentences) case.

Here it’s:

• мій учитель = my teacher (masculine, singular, nominative)

Other common forms in the nominative:

• моя книга – my book (feminine, singular)
• моє місто – my city (neuter, singular)
• мої учителі – my teachers (plural, any gender)

So you choose:

• мій for masculine singular nouns
• моя for feminine singular
• моє for neuter singular
• мої for any plural noun

Why is учитель masculine, and is there a feminine form?

Учитель is grammatically masculine – it ends in a consonant and refers to a (usually male or unspecified) teacher.

To highlight that the teacher is female, Ukrainian often uses a special feminine form:

• учителька – a female teacher

So:

• Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня. – My (male/unspecified) teacher helps me every day.
• Моя учителька допомагає мені щодня. – My (female) teacher helps me every day.

Note how мій changes to моя when you use учителька, because учителька is feminine.

What is the difference between учитель and вчитель?

Both учитель and вчитель mean teacher, and both are understood across Ukraine.

General tendencies:

• учитель – very common in official/standard speech, in school contexts, in textbooks, etc.
• вчитель – also correct, often felt as more colloquial or “more Ukrainian-sounding” by some speakers.

In practice, you will hear and see both. For this sentence, you could also say:

• Мій вчитель допомагає мені щодня.

The grammar around the word (cases, agreement) stays the same.

Why is the verb допомагає and not допомагати?

Допомагати is the infinitive: to help.

In the sentence you need a finite verb that agrees with the subject учитель:

• учитель (він) допомагає – the teacher (he) helps / is helping

Допомагає is:

• 3rd person
• singular
• present tense
• imperfective aspect

Rough conjugation (present tense, imperfective):

• я допомагаю – I help
• ти допомагаєш – you help (singular, informal)
• він / вона / воно допомагає – he / she / it helps
• ми допомагаємо – we help
• ви допомагаєте – you help (plural / formal)
• вони допомагають – they help

How do you say is helping in Ukrainian? Is there a special continuous form?

Ukrainian normally uses the same present tense form for both helps and is helping.

So допомагає can mean:

• helps (habitually)
• is helping (right now)

The context tells you which meaning is intended. In this sentence, щодня (every day) clearly shows a habitual action, so English prefers helps.

If you really want to stress that it is happening right now, you might add an adverb:

• Зараз мій учитель допомагає мені. – My teacher is helping me now.

Why is it мені and not я or мене?

Я is the subject form (I):

• Я читаю. – I read.

Мене is one of the oblique forms (accusative or genitive), often meaning me as a direct object:

• Він бачить мене. – He sees me.

Мені is the dative form, typically used for an indirect object: to me / for me:

• Він допомагає мені. – He helps me. (literally: He helps to me)

In Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня:

• учитель is the subject (who helps)
• мені is the person who receives the help → indirect object → dative case

Do you always need a preposition like to before мені?

No. Ukrainian often shows to / for using the dative case without any preposition.

English:

• helps me, gives it to me, tells me

Ukrainian:

• допомагає мені – helps me / helps to me
• дає мені – gives (to) me
• каже мені – says (to) me / tells me

So мені already includes the idea of to me; adding a preposition like до мені here would be ungrammatical.

Is the word order fixed? Can I move мені or щодня around?

Word order in Ukrainian is relatively flexible, especially for short sentences like this. All of these are possible:

• Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня. – neutral, very natural.
• Мій учитель щодня допомагає мені.
• Щодня мій учитель допомагає мені.
• Мені мій учитель допомагає щодня. – puts extra emphasis on мені (to me).

The basic meaning stays the same; changing the order mainly affects what is emphasized.

Can you drop мій? Is Учитель допомагає мені щодня correct?

Yes, it’s grammatically correct to say:

• Учитель допомагає мені щодня.

However, the nuance changes:

• Мій учитель допомагає мені щодня. – specifically my teacher.
• Учитель допомагає мені щодня. – the teacher helps me every day (some teacher already known in the context, or “the teacher” as a role).

In many real-life situations, speakers do say мій учитель (or мій вчитель) to make it clear they mean their own teacher.

How do you pronounce мій and учитель?

Approximate pronunciation:

• мій – [mij]
  
  • м like m in man
  • і like ee in seen
  • й like y in yes

So мій sounds somewhat like mee-y (one smooth syllable).

• учитель – [uˈtʃɪtɛlʲ]
  
  • у like oo in food (but shorter)
  • чи = ч like ch in church, и is a short vowel (between English i in sit and e in set)
  • тель – т like t, е like e in set, ль is a soft l (tongue more toward the front/palate)

Stress is on the first syllable: У́читель.