У моєї сестри довге волосся, і вона схожа на нашу матір.

Both patterns are possible, but у + genitive is a very common way to express possession in Ukrainian.

• У моєї сестри довге волосся = literally At my sister, there is long hair
• Natural English meaning: My sister has long hair

This structure is extremely common in Ukrainian for saying that someone has something:

• У мене є брат = I have a brother
• У неї гарний голос = She has a nice voice

You can also say Моя сестра має довге волосся, and it is grammatically correct. But у моєї сестри... often sounds more natural in everyday Ukrainian, especially with physical features, qualities, or things belonging to someone.

It is the genitive case.

The preposition у in this possession pattern requires the genitive:

• у моєї сестри
• у мого брата
• у нашої мами

Here:

• моя becomes моєї
• сестра becomes сестри

So the phrase literally means something like at my sister.

In Ukrainian, волосся is a neuter singular mass noun. So it behaves grammatically like a singular noun, even though it refers to hair in general.

That is why the adjective is also neuter singular:

• довге волосся = long hair

Compare:

• гарне волосся = nice hair
• коротке волосся = short hair

Even though English hair can feel a bit flexible, in Ukrainian волосся regularly takes singular agreement.

Because волосся is neuter singular, and the adjective must agree with the noun.

Adjective endings in the nominative singular:

• masculine: довгий
• feminine: довга
• neuter: довге

Since волосся is neuter, we get:

• довге волосся

In this type of Ukrainian sentence, the idea of has is built into the possession structure itself.

So:

• У моєї сестри довге волосся

already means My sister has long hair.

Ukrainian often omits a direct equivalent of to have in these possession patterns. The meaning comes from:

• у + genitive possessor
• the thing possessed

You may also sometimes see є, especially when emphasizing existence:

• У моєї сестри є довге волосся

But in many everyday sentences, є is omitted.

Схожа is not a verb here. It is an adjective meaning similar or resembling.

The basic dictionary form is:

• masculine: схожий
• feminine: схожа
• neuter: схоже
• plural: схожі

Because the subject is вона (she), the feminine form is used:

• вона схожа = she is similar / she looks like

In Ukrainian, the present-tense verb to be is often omitted, so:

• вона схожа на нашу матір

literally is she similar to our mother, but naturally means she looks like our mother or she is похожа on our mother—in good English, she looks like our mother.

Because схожий / схожа normally goes with the preposition на when you say who or what someone resembles.

Pattern:

• схожий на + accusative
• схожа на + accusative

Examples:

• Він схожий на батька = He looks like his father
• Вона схожа на маму = She looks like her mother

So in your sentence:

• вона схожа на нашу матір

Because after на in this expression, Ukrainian uses the accusative case.

The noun мати is irregular, and its accusative singular is:

• nominative: мати
• accusative: матір

So:

• нашу матір = our mother in the accusative

The adjective also changes to match:

• наша → нашу

This is why it is not наша мати here.

Yes, you absolutely could say маму.

• нашу матір sounds correct and a bit more formal, literary, or careful
• нашу маму sounds more everyday and conversational

So both are fine, but they have a slightly different tone:

• вона схожа на нашу матір = a bit more formal
• вона схожа на нашу маму = more natural in casual speech

It is included because the sentence has two coordinated clauses:

• У моєї сестри довге волосся
• і вона схожа на нашу матір

Including вона makes the second clause clear and natural: and she looks like our mother.

In some contexts, Ukrainian can omit pronouns more often than English, but here keeping вона is standard and clear.

Because this sentence joins two separate clauses, each with its own grammatical center:

1. У моєї сестри довге волосся
2. вона схожа на нашу матір

In Ukrainian punctuation, when і connects two full clauses, a comma is usually used.

So the comma here is normal and expected.

Yes, у and в are often variants of the same preposition. Ukrainian switches between them mostly for ease of pronunciation and smooth sound.

So both are possible in many situations:

• У моєї сестри...
• В моєї сестри...

However, у моєї сестри sounds smoother here, so it is the more natural choice.

This alternation is very common in Ukrainian and is not usually a difference in meaning.

Yes. Ukrainian word order is flexible, though different orders can shift emphasis.

The given sentence is neutral and natural:

• У моєї сестри довге волосся, і вона схожа на нашу матір.

You could also hear variations such as:

• Моя сестра має довге волосся і схожа на нашу матір.
• На нашу матір вона схожа, і волосся в неї довге.

These are possible, but the original sentence is a very good standard version for learners.

In this sentence, the best natural translation is usually looks like.

• вона схожа на нашу матір = she looks like our mother

But literally, схожа means similar or resembling, so depending on context it can overlap with:

• is similar to
• resembles
• looks like

For family resemblance, looks like is usually the most natural English choice.

Yes. Волосся usually refers to hair as a mass, especially the hair on someone’s head.

Examples:

• У неї довге волосся = She has long hair
• У нього темне волосся = He has dark hair

If you want to talk about individual hairs, Ukrainian can use other forms depending on context, but for general appearance and hairstyle, волосся is the normal word.

Here are the main dictionary forms:

• сестри → сестра = sister
• моєї → мій / моя / моє = my
• довге → довгий = long
• волосся → волосся = hair
• схожа → схожий = similar, resembling
• нашу → наш / наша / наше = our
• матір → мати = mother

This is useful because many words appear in changed forms in the sentence due to gender, number, and case.