Скажіть ветеринару про симптом перед щепленням.

Скажіть is the imperative form meaning tell / say.

It can be used:

• to one person politely (formal you),
• or to more than one person.

By contrast, скажи is the informal singular command, used with one person you address casually.

So:

• Скажіть ветеринару... = Tell the veterinarian... (polite or plural)
• Скажи ветеринару... = the same idea, but informal singular

Also, скажіть comes from the perfective verb сказати, which fits a one-time completed action: tell the vet.

Ветеринару is in the dative case.

With сказати / сказати комусь щось (to tell someone something), the person you tell something to goes in the dative:

• сказати ветеринару = to tell the veterinarian
• literally: tell to the veterinarian

The base form is ветеринар.
Its dative singular form is ветеринару.

So the pattern is:

• Хто? Що? — ветеринар (nominative)
• Кому? Чому? — ветеринару (dative)

Because про usually takes the accusative case when it means about.

So:

• про симптом = about the symptom

The noun симптом is a masculine inanimate noun. For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is usually the same as the nominative singular.

That is why you see:

• nominative: симптом
• accusative: симптом

So even though the case has changed, the form looks the same.

Because the preposition перед (before / in front of) takes the instrumental case.

The noun is:

• щеплення = vaccination / shot

After перед, it becomes:

• щепленням = instrumental singular

So:

• перед щепленням = before the vaccination / before the shot

This is a very common pattern in Ukrainian:

• перед уроком = before class
• перед зустріччю = before the meeting
• перед щепленням = before the vaccination

Щеплення usually means vaccination, immunization, or shot, depending on context.

In everyday speech, it often refers to a vaccine shot:

• перед щепленням = before the shot / before vaccination

So this sentence could be understood as telling someone to mention a symptom before the animal gets vaccinated.

The singular симптом is grammatically correct and means a symptom or the symptom.

It works well if:

• one specific symptom is meant,
• the speaker already has a particular symptom in mind.

If you mean several symptoms, Ukrainian would use:

• про симптоми = about the symptoms

In real-life medical or veterinary contexts, plural can often sound more natural if there is more than one issue to report. But the singular sentence is still completely normal.

Ukrainian has no articles like a, an, or the.

So nouns like:

• ветеринару
• симптом
• щепленням

do not need a separate word for the.

English has to choose:

• the veterinarian
• a symptom / the symptom
• the vaccination

Ukrainian leaves that to context. The sentence can be interpreted naturally as:

• Tell the veterinarian about the symptom before the vaccination or
• Tell a veterinarian about a symptom before vaccination

Usually context tells you which one is meant.

The word order is fairly flexible in Ukrainian.

The given sentence:

• Скажіть ветеринару про симптом перед щепленням.

is natural and clear.

But you could also say:

• Перед щепленням скажіть ветеринару про симптом.

This version puts more emphasis on before the vaccination.

In Ukrainian, word order often changes for:

• emphasis,
• rhythm,
• what information is new or important.

So the sentence structure is flexible, even though the original version is perfectly normal.

In dictionaries, сказати can often correspond to both say and tell, depending on structure.

In this sentence, the natural English translation is tell, because there is a recipient:

• сказати ветеринару = tell the veterinarian

If there were no person receiving the information, English might use say instead in some contexts.

So here:

• Скажіть ветеринару... = Tell the veterinarian...

not usually Say to the veterinarian..., even though that is the literal idea underneath.

A helpful stress guide is:

• скажі́ть
• ветерина́ру
• про симпто́м
• пе́ред щепле́нням

A rough English-style approximation would be:

• ska-ZHEET ve-te-ri-NA-ru pro symp-TOM PE-red shchep-LEN-nyam

A few pronunciation notes:

• щ sounds like a soft long shch sound.
• і sounds like ee in see.
• Ukrainian consonants can be softer than in English, especially before і.

Because it says ветеринару (to the veterinarian), this sentence is specifically about an animal.

If you were talking about a human patient, you would normally say:

• Скажіть лікарю про симптом перед щепленням.
  = Tell the doctor about the symptom before the vaccination.

So the grammar is the same, but ветеринар makes the context clearly veterinary.