Вага собаки велика.

Because собаки is in the genitive case, not the nominative.

In Вага собаки велика, the phrase вага собаки means the dog's weight or the weight of the dog. In Ukrainian, when one noun belongs to another noun, the second noun is often put in the genitive case.

• собака = dog
• собаки = of the dog

So:

• вага = weight
• вага собаки = the dog's weight

This is a very common pattern in Ukrainian.

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

So instead of saying something like The dog's weight is large, Ukrainian simply says:

• Вага собаки велика.

This is completely normal. The idea of is is understood automatically.

In past or future tense, forms of to be do appear:

• Вага собаки була велика. = The dog's weight was large.
• Вага собаки буде велика. = The dog's weight will be large.

Because it agrees with вага, and вага is a feminine noun.

In Ukrainian, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• вага is feminine singular nominative
• so the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative: велика

Compare:

• великий = masculine
• велика = feminine
• велике = neuter
• великі = plural

So велика matches вага, not собаки.

Literally, велика means big/large. In this sentence, with вага (weight), it naturally means great/large weight, so in normal English you would often understand it as heavy.

So the Ukrainian sentence is literally something like:

• The dog's weight is large

But natural English might be:

• The dog is heavy
• The dog's weight is high
• The dog weighs a lot

The exact English wording depends on context.

Yes, but it means something different.

• Собака велика. = The dog is big.
• Вага собаки велика. = The dog's weight is large / The dog is heavy.

The first sentence talks about the dog's overall size. The second talks specifically about its weight.

So if you want to focus on heaviness rather than general size, Вага собаки велика is more precise.

Not completely. Ukrainian word order is more flexible than English because the cases show the grammatical relationships.

The neutral/basic order here is:

• Вага собаки велика.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Велика вага собаки.
• Собаки вага велика. (more marked, less neutral)

Even when the order changes, the meaning is usually still clear because:

• вага is nominative
• собаки is genitive

That said, Вага собаки велика is the most straightforward version for a learner.

Because вага is in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject of a sentence.

In this sentence:

• вага = nominative singular
• собаки = genitive singular
• велика = adjective agreeing with вага

So the structure is:

• [Subject] вага
• [dependent noun in genitive] собаки
• [predicate adjective] велика

That tells you the sentence is about the weight, not about the dog directly.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

Vá-ha so-BA-ky ve-LY-ka

More carefully:

• Вага ≈ va-HA / VA-ha depending on teaching style, but the standard stress is вага́
• собаки = so-BA-ky
• велика = ve-LY-ka

Stress:

• вага́
• соба́ки
• велика́? Actually the standard stress is велика́ in some forms? No—here the usual stress is велика́?
  For learners, it is safest to learn the dictionary stress carefully from audio or a reliable dictionary, because stress in Ukrainian is important and not always predictable.

A broad pronunciation approximation is: va-HA so-BA-ky ve-ly-KA

Here it is singular: of the dog.

That can be confusing because собаки can also be a plural nominative form in other contexts:

• собаки = dogs
  or
• собаки = of the dog

You tell the difference from the sentence structure.

In Вага собаки велика:

• вага needs something like of whom?
• so собаки is understood as genitive singular

So this means the dog's weight, not the dogs' weight.

Yes. Ukrainian usually does not have articles like a and the, so the sentence can be interpreted more generally depending on context.

Вага собаки велика could mean:

• the dog's weight is large
• a dog's weight is large
• the weight of the dog is large

In real use, context tells you which is meant.

Ukrainian sometimes uses possessive forms, but the genitive noun pattern is much more common and natural in many situations.

So вага собаки is the normal way to say:

• the dog's weight

This is similar to how Ukrainian often expresses possession with X of Y rather than a special possessive adjective.

For a learner, it is best to get very comfortable with this pattern:

• колір машини = the car's color
• ім'я дитини = the child's name
• вага собаки = the dog's weight

Yes.

• Велика вага собаки.

This can mean The dog's weight is large in certain contexts, but without a verb it may also sound more like a noun phrase:

• a large weight of the dog / the large weight of the dog

So if you want a clear full sentence for a beginner, Вага собаки велика is better.

In Ukrainian, predicate adjectives often come after the noun in simple statements like this.

It uses a very common Ukrainian pattern:

[Noun in nominative] + [dependent noun in genitive] + [adjective/predicate]

Here that is:

• Вага = nominative subject
• собаки = genitive dependent noun
• велика = predicate adjective agreeing with the subject

So you can think of it as:

The weight of the dog [is] large.

This pattern is useful far beyond this one sentence.