Моя сорочка біла.

• моя = my
• сорочка = shirt or blouse/shirt-like garment, depending on context
• біла = white

Grammatically, моя describes сорочка, and біла is the predicate adjective describing the shirt.

So the structure is basically:

My shirt white.

In natural English, of course, that becomes My shirt is white.

Because Ukrainian adjectives and possessive words agree with the noun they describe.

The noun сорочка is feminine singular, so my must also be in the feminine singular form:

• мій = masculine
• моя = feminine
• моє = neuter
• мої = plural

Since сорочка is feminine, you say моя сорочка.

For the same reason: adjectives in Ukrainian agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Here, сорочка is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective білий (white) changes to the matching form біла.

Compare:

• білий стіл = a white table (masculine)
• біла сорочка = a white shirt (feminine)
• біле вікно = a white window (neuter)
• білі сорочки = white shirts (plural)

In the present tense, Ukrainian usually leaves out the verb to be in sentences like this.

So:

• Моя сорочка біла. literally looks like My shirt white.
• But it means My shirt is white.

This is completely normal in Ukrainian.

If you want to talk about the past or future, forms of бути (to be) do appear:

• Моя сорочка була біла. = My shirt was white.
• Моя сорочка буде біла. = My shirt will be white.

Not always exactly.

Сорочка often means:

• shirt
• dress shirt
• sometimes a more traditional or general shirt-like garment

Depending on context, it can overlap a bit with what English speakers might call a blouse or shirt.

In modern everyday usage, Ukrainian also has:

• футболка = T-shirt
• блузка = blouse
• сорочка = shirt / dress shirt

So сорочка is a good basic translation for shirt, but the exact English word can depend on the kind of clothing.

It is in the nominative case.

That is because сорочка is the subject of the sentence: the shirt is what is being described.

You can recognize that both моя and біла are also in forms that match feminine singular nominative.

So this is a simple nominative sentence:

• моя — feminine singular nominative
• сорочка — feminine singular nominative
• біла — feminine singular nominative

Yes. Ukrainian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Моя сорочка біла.

But you could also hear:

• Сорочка моя біла.
• Біла моя сорочка.

These can sound more emphatic, poetic, or contrastive depending on context.

For example:

• Моя сорочка біла. = neutral statement
• Біла моя сорочка. = emphasis on white
• Сорочка моя біла. = emphasis on my shirt

For beginners, the original order is the safest and most natural to produce.

Yes, absolutely.

That would mean:

• Це моя сорочка. = This is my shirt.
• Вона біла. = It is white.

Ukrainian often uses вона (she) for feminine nouns, because nouns have grammatical gender. Since сорочка is feminine, the pronoun is вона.

So when talking about a shirt in Ukrainian, you may see what looks like she, even though in English we say it.

One strong clue is the ending -а.

Many Ukrainian nouns ending in -а or -я are feminine, though there are exceptions.

Also, the agreeing words confirm it:

• моя is feminine
• біла is feminine

So even if you were unsure about the noun by itself, the agreement helps you identify its gender.

The usual stress is:

• моя́
• соро́чка
• бі́ла

A rough pronunciation guide:

• моя́ ≈ mo-YA
• соро́чка ≈ so-ROCH-ka
• бі́ла ≈ BEE-la

A couple of pronunciation notes:

• я in моя sounds like ya
• ч in сорочка is like ch in church
• і in біла is like ee in see

It can do both, but the meaning and structure are different.

1. Моя сорочка біла.
   Here біла is part of the predicate:
   My shirt is white.

2. Моя біла сорочка.
   Here біла directly modifies сорочка inside the noun phrase:
   My white shirt.

So:

• моя сорочка біла = the shirt is white
• моя біла сорочка = my white shirt

That difference is very important.

In normal modern Ukrainian, that sounds unnatural in this kind of simple present-tense sentence.

The usual form is just:

• Моя сорочка біла.

The word є can appear in some contexts, but not as a regular equivalent of English is in basic sentences like this.

So for a beginner, the best rule is:

• in present-tense sentences like X is Y, usually do not add a word for is.