Обов’язок складний.

difficult

Breakdown of Обов’язок складний.

• обов’язок: the duty; responsibility

Questions & Answers about Обов’язок складний.

Why is there no word for is in Обов’язок складний?

In the present tense, Ukrainian usually leaves out the verb to be.

So:

• Обов’язок складний = The duty is difficult

Literally, it is more like:

• Duty difficult

This is completely normal in Ukrainian.
If you want to say the same thing in the past or future, forms of бути (to be) do appear:

• Обов’язок був складний = The duty was difficult
• Обов’язок буде складний = The duty will be difficult

What part of speech is складний here?

Складний is an adjective.

In this sentence, it is not just describing a noun inside a noun phrase. It is acting as a predicate adjective:

• Обов’язок = the subject
• складний = what is being said about the subject

So the structure is:

• noun + adjective
• literally: Duty difficult
• naturally: The duty is difficult

Why does складний end in -ий?