Вода на її щоці.

In Ukrainian, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense.

So Вода на її щоці is literally Water on her cheek, but it naturally means something like:

• There is water on her cheek
• The water is on her cheek

This is completely normal Ukrainian, especially in simple description.

Щоці is the locative singular form of щока (cheek).

• dictionary form: щока
• locative form: на щоці = on the cheek

After на when you are talking about location, Ukrainian usually uses the locative case.

So:

• щока = cheek
• на щоці = on the cheek

Її here is the possessive pronoun meaning her.

So її щока means her cheek.

A useful thing to know is that possessive її does not change its form for case, gender, or number. It stays її in all kinds of phrases:

• її рука = her hand
• на її щоці = on her cheek
• з її сумки = from her bag

That makes it easier than many other Ukrainian words.

Here на means on, because it shows location: the water is located on the cheek.

With на, the case depends on the meaning:

• location → usually locative
• movement onto something → usually accusative

Compare:

• на щоці = on the cheek, located there
• на щоку = onto the cheek, moving to that place

So in your sentence, на її щоці uses the locative because it describes where the water is.

Вода is in the nominative singular, which is the basic dictionary form.

In a sentence like this, it acts like the subject of the implied statement:

• Вода на її щоці = Water is on her cheek

That is why it stays вода, not some other case form.

It can function as a full sentence in Ukrainian, even though it looks short.

Because Ukrainian often drops the present-tense to be, a structure like this can stand on its own as a complete statement.

It can also feel a bit like a caption or descriptive phrase, depending on context. For example, it would be natural in:

• a description in a story
• a photo caption
• a short observation

So yes, it can absolutely work as a complete sentence.

Yes. Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible, and changing it usually changes emphasis, not the core meaning.

For example:

• Вода на її щоці = neutral, starting with water
• На її щоці вода = emphasizes the location first, on her cheek
• На щоці в неї вода = more colloquial or contrastive in some contexts

So the original version is fine, but other orders are possible depending on what the speaker wants to highlight.

Ukrainian does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So вода can mean:

• water
• the water
• some water

The exact meaning depends on context.

That is very normal in Ukrainian, and learners have to get used to understanding definiteness from the situation rather than from an article.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• її ≈ yi-YI
• щоці ≈ shcho-TSI

A few notes:

• ї is pronounced clearly, roughly like yi
• in її, both vowels are pronounced; they do not merge into one sound
• щ in standard Ukrainian is usually pronounced like shch
• ці is a soft tsi

So the whole sentence is approximately:

vo-DA na yi-YI shcho-TSI

The stress is on:

• вода → voДА
• її → yi-Ї
• щоці → shcho-ЦІ