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.