У собаки маленькі вуха.

Because after у in this kind of possession pattern, Ukrainian uses the genitive case.

So:

• собака = the dictionary form, nominative singular
• собаки = genitive singular

The pattern is:

• У + genitive + noun
  = literally something like at/by X there is Y = natural English: X has Y

So У собаки маленькі вуха literally works like At the dog, small ears, but in normal English we say The dog has small ears.

Here у is part of a very common Ukrainian possession structure.

It does not directly mean has, but the whole pattern:

• У собаки ...

means:

• the dog has ...

More literally, у often means at, by, or with depending on context. In possessive sentences, Ukrainian often expresses having as something exists at someone.

Examples:

• У мене є брат. = I have a brother.
• У кота довгий хвіст. = The cat has a long tail.
• У собаки маленькі вуха. = The dog has small ears.

Because Ukrainian often does not use a separate verb equivalent to English have in the same way English does.

Instead, possession is commonly shown with:

• у + genitive

Also, Ukrainian often leaves out є in present-tense descriptive sentences.

So:

• У собаки маленькі вуха.

is a perfectly normal sentence.

You could also say:

• У собаки є маленькі вуха.

This is grammatical too, but it can sound a bit more like the dog has small ears / there exist small ears on the dog. Without є, the sentence is often just a smooth descriptive statement.

Because вуха means ears.

The singular is:

• вухо = ear

The plural is:

• вуха = ears

Since a dog normally has two ears, the plural is used here.

So:

• маленьке вухо = a small ear
• маленькі вуха = small ears

Маленькі is the adjective small, and it must agree with the noun вуха.

Since вуха is:

• plural
• nominative here

the adjective must also be:

• plural
• nominative

So:

• маленькі вуха = small ears

Compare:

• маленьке вухо = small ear
• маленькі вуха = small ears

This is normal adjective-noun agreement in Ukrainian.

Because вуха is the thing being described in the sentence.

In У собаки маленькі вуха, the possessive phrase у собаки sets the owner, and вуха is the noun that the sentence is really saying something about.

A helpful way to think of it is:

• As for the dog, the ears are small.

That is why вуха stays in the nominative plural, and the adjective маленькі matches it.

Yes. That is a very useful way to understand it.

Depending on context, У собаки маленькі вуха can feel like:

• The dog has small ears
• The dog’s ears are small

Both capture the grammar and meaning well.

English usually chooses one phrasing or the other depending on context, but Ukrainian often uses this same structure naturally.

No, Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible.

У собаки маленькі вуха is a neutral, natural order. But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Маленькі вуха у собаки.
• Вуха у собаки маленькі.

These can sound more emphatic or context-dependent.

For a learner, the safest neutral version is:

• У собаки маленькі вуха.

Because Ukrainian does not have articles.

So a noun like собака or собаки does not automatically show a dog vs the dog the way English does. The exact meaning depends on context.

That is why У собаки маленькі вуха could be understood in English as:

• The dog has small ears
• A dog has small ears

In many learning examples, English uses the dog because it sounds more natural in context.

A rough English-style guide is:

• oo so-BA-ky ma-LEN-ki VOO-kha

A few pronunciation notes:

• у = like oo in boot
• собаки has stress on ба: so-BA-ky
• маленькі has stress on лень: ma-LEN-ki
• вуха has stress on the second syllable: vu-KHA
• х is a throaty sound, like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach

Sometimes у and в alternate in Ukrainian for ease of pronunciation, but in this specific sentence у собаки is the normal choice.

Ukrainian often chooses у or в based on how the sounds fit together smoothly. Since собаки begins with a consonant cluster-friendly sound pattern, у собаки sounds natural.

For learners, it is best to remember this sentence as:

• У собаки маленькі вуха.

A very useful pattern is:

• У + genitive + nominative noun/adjective
• meaning: someone has something

So you can build similar sentences:

• У кота довгий хвіст. = The cat has a long tail.
• У дівчини сині очі. = The girl has blue eyes.
• У брата нова машина. = My brother has a new car.

Your sentence follows exactly this pattern:

• У собаки = the dog has
• маленькі вуха = small ears