Собака гавкає.

A good learner-friendly approximation is:

• соба́ка = so-BA-ka
• га́вкає = HAV-ka-ye

A few notes:

• The stress is usually соба́ка га́вкає.
• Ukrainian г is not a hard English g. It is closer to a soft, voiced h sound.
• є here sounds like ye.

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like so-BA-ka HAV-ka-ye.

Because in standard Ukrainian, the letter г is usually pronounced as [ɦ], which is much closer to an h-type sound than to a hard g.

So:

• гавкає starts with Ukrainian г
• it sounds closer to havkaie than gavkaie

If you want a true hard g sound in Ukrainian, the letter is usually ґ, not г.

Гавкає is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb гавкати, meaning to bark.

So it means:

• (he/she/it) barks
• is barking

In this sentence, it matches собака = dog, so:

• Собака гавкає = The dog barks / The dog is barking

Because Ukrainian does not need an extra helper verb here the way English does in is barking.

English uses:

• the dog is barking

Ukrainian uses just the present-tense verb:

• собака гавкає

So гавкає already carries the idea of present time. Depending on context, it can mean either:

• barks
• is barking

Собака is in the nominative singular.

Why? Because it is the subject of the sentence — the one doing the action.

• Собака гавкає. = The dog is barking.

If dog were the object instead, the form would change. For example:

• Я бачу собаку. = I see the dog.

There, собаку is not nominative anymore.

Because Ukrainian noun endings follow grammatical patterns, not just biological sex.

A noun ending in -а often looks feminine, but with animal words, grammar and real-life sex do not always match neatly. Собака is the normal everyday word for dog in general.

So you should not assume that -а automatically means female dog here.

If someone specifically wants to say male dog, another common word is пес.

Because Ukrainian has no articles.

So собака can mean:

• a dog
• the dog

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

That means Собака гавкає could be understood as:

• A dog is barking
• The dog is barking
• The dog barks

depending on the situation.

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

The neutral, basic order here is:

• Собака гавкає.

But you can also say:

• Гавкає собака.

Both are grammatical. The difference is mainly in emphasis or style.

• Собака гавкає = neutral statement
• Гавкає собака = puts more focus on the action or sounds a bit more scene-setting

English usually needs a more fixed order, but Ukrainian can move words around more freely because endings help show their roles.

Yes, if the context already makes it clear who or what is barking.

Гавкає by itself means:

• He/she/it is barking
• Barks

Ukrainian often drops the subject when it is already understood from context.

For example, if you are both looking at a dog, someone could simply say:

• Гавкає. = It’s barking.

But without context, that sounds less complete than Собака гавкає.

Put не before the verb:

• Собака не гавкає. = The dog is not barking.

This is the normal way to negate a verb in Ukrainian:

• гавкає = is barking / barks
• не гавкає = is not barking / does not bark