Questions & Answers about Уночі в кімнаті тихо.
In Ukrainian, the verb бути (to be) in the present tense is usually omitted in simple statements.
So instead of:
- Уночі в кімнаті є тихо. (literally At night in the room *there is quiet.*)
people normally say:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо.
The meaning “is” / “it is” is just understood from the context. This is very common in Ukrainian and other Slavic languages.
Ночі is the locative case (also called місцевий відмінок) of ніч (night).
Literally, уночі is “in the night” → during the night / at night.
Over time, уночі / вночі has become a fixed adverb meaning “at night”, so learners normally just memorize it as a time expression.
Both уночі and вночі are correct and mean “at night”.
The choice between у and в is mainly for euphony (how it sounds):
- у is often used when it sounds smoother after certain consonants or at the beginning of a sentence.
- в is often used when it sounds smoother between vowels or in other positions.
In your sentence, you could say:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо.
or - Вночі в кімнаті тихо.
Both are acceptable; speakers choose what feels more natural in context.
You will see both, but there is a nuance:
- Уночі / Вночі (one word) is treated as a fixed adverb meaning “at night” (time).
- У ночі / В ночі (two words) can still be understood, but it feels more like “in the night” as a prepositional phrase (more literal, less adverb-like).
In everyday modern Ukrainian for “at night”, writing it as one word (уночі / вночі) is standard.
Кімнаті is in the locative case (місцевий відмінок) of кімната (room).
The preposition в / у meaning “in” commonly takes the locative when it refers to location:
- в кімнаті – in the room
- у школі – at school / in the school
- в місті – in the city
So в кімнаті literally means “in the room”.
Тихо is an adverb or predicative form meaning “quiet(ly)” / “it is quiet”.
- Тихий – quiet (adjective, masculine)
- Тиха – quiet (adjective, feminine)
- Тихе – quiet (adjective, neuter)
- Тихо – quietly / it is quiet (adverb / short predicative form)
In impersonal sentences about a general state, Ukrainian often uses the adverb-like form:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо. – At night, it is quiet in the room.
- На вулиці холодно. – It is cold outside.
If you said кімната тиха, you’d be directly describing the room as a quiet room (like a permanent characteristic):
- Кімната тиха. – The room is quiet (as a quality).
This is an impersonal sentence.
In Ukrainian, many sentences about weather, conditions, or states don’t have an explicit subject. The state itself is what you’re talking about:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо. – At night, it is quiet in the room.
- На вулиці темно. – It is dark outside.
- Тут тепло. – It is warm here.
English uses a dummy subject “it”, but Ukrainian simply omits it.
Yes, Ukrainian word order is quite flexible, especially with such simple elements. All of these are possible in the right context:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо.
- В кімнаті тихо уночі.
- В кімнаті уночі тихо.
The basic meaning stays the same: “At night it is quiet in the room.”
Changing word order can slightly change emphasis:
- Starting with Уночі emphasizes “at night”.
- Starting with В кімнаті emphasizes the room as the place.
For a beginner, Уночі в кімнаті тихо is a clear, natural version.
Stress and approximate pronunciation (stressed syllables in CAPS):
- УноЧІ – [oo-no-CHEE]
- в кімНАті – [v keem-NAH-tee]
- ТИхо – [TEE-kho] (kh as in Scottish loch)
So overall:
УноЧІ в кімНАті ТИхо.
Spoken naturally, в in в кімнаті is very short, almost like it attaches to the next word: [vki-mNA-tee].
Кімната is a regular feminine noun of the -а type. Singular forms:
- Nominative (хто? що?) – кімната – a room
- Genitive (кого? чого?) – кімнати – of a room
- Dative (кому? чому?) – кімнаті – to/for a room
- Accusative (кого? що?) – кімнату – (I see) a room
- Instrumental (ким? чим?) – кімнатою – with/by a room
- Locative (на/у/в чому?) – (у) кімнаті – in a room
- Vocative (кличний) – кімнато – O room (rare in practice)
In в кімнаті, you have the locative form.
You can say either в кімнаті or у кімнаті. Both are correct.
Ukrainian has euphonic alternation between у and в to avoid awkward sound clusters. Native speakers choose the option that sounds smoother in fast speech.
- After a consonant, some speakers prefer у: жити у кімнаті.
- At the beginning of a sentence, many prefer у to avoid starting with в plus another consonant.
In your sentence, both:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо.
- Уночі у кімнаті тихо.
are acceptable. People just pick what flows naturally for them.
Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:
- тихо – quietly, it is quiet (focus on low volume / little noise)
- спокійно – calmly, it is calm/peaceful (focus on lack of disturbance / peaceful atmosphere)
So:
- Уночі в кімнаті тихо. – It’s quiet (not noisy).
- Уночі в кімнаті спокійно. – It’s calm / peaceful in the room (no activity, no stress).
Both are natural; you just highlight a different aspect of the nighttime atmosphere.
The most natural English rendering is:
- “At night, it is quiet in the room.”
or
- “The room is quiet at night.”
The Ukrainian doesn’t imply anything special like “on a particular night”; it’s a general statement about what usually happens at night.