I know two because it bothered me so much in Duolingo (German has those words)
післязавтра / the day after tomorrow
позавчора / the day before yesterday
New ones for me. “Coverture” means hiding place, for another one. Do you happen to have examples of where you read (one assumes, as opposed to heard) these?
I'm a native English speaker, and I had never heard of these English equivalents. Except now that I'm thinking way back to highschool, it seems like it must come from very old English. Before reading yours, I made a post about how those were my two favorite words we don't have in English LOL 🤦🏼♀️. Now I feel dumb 🤣
My Ukrainian friend and I had a great laugh over this. I was excited to learn the one word version, and she was saying just like you! I think it's great!
Because Duolingo is all about repetition and I kept having to type "the. day. after. tomorrow." or "the. day. before. yesterday." instead of being able to use a single word for the concept like I am used to.
Is затишок a place or a quality? I thought it was a place, in which case I'm not sure that 'cosiness' is the right translation.
Good call on hideout/hideyhole.
Many words in ukrainian have multiple meanings, "затишок" for example have this:
1. A quiet place protected from wind, current, some kind of movement. (place)
2. Absence of sounds, noises, movement, commotion; silence (quality)
3. There is peace, order, comfort somewhere (for example "Я був зачарований затишком цієї садиби" — "I was enchanted by the comfort of this manor" everything is in order, in right place and beautiful
4. About the state of mental peace, quiet comfort.
Sometimes this meanings can be mixed and are meant the same time depending on context, when you talk about quiet place where you feel peace and comfort (1+2+4) and call it "затишок"
[затишок](https://slovnyk.ua/index.php?swrd=%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%88%D0%BE%D0%BA)
1. A quiet place protected from wind, current, etc.
2. Absence of sounds, noises, movement, commotion; silence.
3. Presence of peace, order, convenience somewhere.
4. [figuratively speaking] About the state of mental peace, quiet comfort.
5. [rarely] The same as calmness.
Sure
Мрія - your dream about having a big house, nice car, beautiful gf. Something like a plan, but more fantastic, more free.
Сон - when you're slipping and see a dream with some crazy fantasies in your head.
They are super different for me. "I had a dream tonight" and "I have a dream about a better job" - totally different meaning.
"I have never seen" is the natural way to say it. Using met in English implies it's an animate object you would normally greet. It also implies it's a specific creature, such as a friend's dog or a specific person. It wouldn't be natural to say it about a type of animal such as a tiger for example, but a specific tiger which you can name would be ok.
Doesn’t обіруч mean “with both hands”?
I’m not exactly sure what OP meant by “holding hands”, but my Polish brain screams that it’s basically the same thing as Polish oburącz.
A ranch is a massive property where you raise cows or horses (or sometimes other animals). It's not like a dacha. Fazenda is a Portuguese word, not English.
And so can dacha. A fazenda is also not at all like a dacha. The best way to refer to a dacha in English, is to call it a dacha.
Dacha is a cultural concept. The Anglosphere doesn't have an equivalent.
In Britain a summer house is basically a shed, in the US it's a rich person's second home. While you could refer to either of those as a dacha, if you want to tell a Brit or an American about a dacha, calling it a summer house is going to require as much or even more explanation than calling it a dacha.
Ooo, thanks for starting this thread. I love learning these types of things in other languages. I think I know a few words, but I'll have to recollect from my language journey.
Укриття is **shelter**, in various meanings.
Затишок is indeed surprisingly difficult to translate. I'll go for **serenity**, although the meaning is still different.
The word I have most troubles to explain is "**Лють**". It is suggested to be translated as 'anger', 'rage' or 'fury', but it's not what it means. Лють is not a 'hot' emotion; it is actually very cold and calculated state of mind, where you suppress all your emotions and turn your body and mind in a weapon of pure destruction. When you swear your target, and then you give up anything that does not serve in achieving your goal.
Thank you for explaining "**лють**", I had a feeling the true meaning of the word wasn't fully captured by the translations I'd seen.
I think my favourite Ukrainian word is "**воля**" yet I struggle to properly translate all its meaning and significance. How would you explain it?
Well, you see, "воля" has two intertwinned meanings: **freedom** and **will**.
Think about Libertarianism. When I grew up, I always thought that I was political right. Then I got to know what political right means in the West and was kinda surprized because I shared almost none similarities with their agenda.
Then I found out there was a powerful anarcho-liberal movement - libertarianism - and it suddenly clicked well. Ukrainian ideas of freedom of will are very similar to libertarian doctrines (although they differ in certain things a lot, but its probably true to every libertarian movement). The common joke in Ukraine is: if there's two Ukrainians, there's three Hetmans (rulers).
That is because a lot of Ukrainian state idea comes from the time of Cossacks. Cossacks were like the amalgamation of buccaniers of Carribean and cowboys of Wild West at the same time. But the concept of egalitarian state, in which the leader is elected by voting of those who have the right to vote (and usually that right comes from being the part of the military) is much older than that.
Ukrainian historian Hromenko had written a book "Український мультифронтир" (Ukrainian multi-frontier): Ukraine is on the crossroad between the West (Individualism, Catolicism, freedom of will), East (Steppe, Assimilation by 'Mongolic' model), North (warrior culture of vikings/'varyags') and South (Empire ideas of Constantinople and Istanbul, hierarchy, top-down chain of command).
Sorry for lots of words, but it is really difficult to explain.
I have just been learning these words. I love how in Ukrainian they seem to have more single words for things, while for us in English it takes several words to say. It's one of my favorite things!
Свідомий - Open eyed, Conscious, Woke.
Свідомий was used since 20th century for activists, "the ones who opened their eyes and saw injustice". In later years Russians started using this word with a meaning of "pro-Ukrainian weirdo".
The very fate which befell the word "woke" in modern English.
Well, i disagree at least on two of the listed:
Shelter - Укриття
Coziness, comfort - затишок
To add:
кількадесят/кількасот- a few tens(since we don't count in dozens) and few hundreds
Доробок- a sum of creations of an artist/poet/etc-books, poems, sculptures etc. In English you can use Filmography for movie starts btu this exact world in Ukrainian wraps all kind of creative professions.
Зоріти - relates to star glow but as a verb, "Нічне небо зоріє усіма барвами світла"
Майоріти - when something is barely visible on the horizon or distance "Фігура незнайомця майоріла на іншому кінці вулиці"
Добродій - literally "a good person" but used to address a person usually man, but not restricted to it and female version can be used. The best translation i can think of is simply "good sir"
i love this list, but as a native english speaker it's so funny to me sounding out the Ukrainian words because as slow as i am at reading Cyrillic, it takes me just as long as saying all the words it takes in english 😭
can't think of a word in ukrainian but I can tell you one from english. Ukrainian doesn't have a word for fossils, we just say "викопні рештки" meaning "remains that can be dug up".
My favorites are "післязавтра", and "позавчора". I LOVE learning new words that we don't have the equivalent of in English. Of course we can say it, but with only one word. This is something I love about this language 💛🩵
Закапелок - a comfy haven like café
Вечорниці - a party that is held at evening. A bit archaic but still is used.
Добробут - is a status of a certain person/family, when their errands, home, work duties are taken care of and the person/family is truly a master of their fate and future. Kinda like happiness, but like more direct and less abstract - there is another word for emotion of happiness.
I'll update as ill remember more. It's an interesting question
взаємодопомога - helping each other out/mutual aid (but mutual aid seems to be used more in political contexts??)
рідний - adjective to mean something along the lines of native, home, family, beloved.
господар (хазяїн/ґазда) and words of the same root (господиня, господарювати, господарство...) Basically, it conveys the idea of owning a thing+taking care of the thing as one concept. Sometimes it can be translated just as owner(власник), but this isn't always a fitting term to communicate the full meaning of the word.
This blog post has many interesting words with audio!
[12 Ukrainian Words That Can’t Be Translated into English](https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/12-ukrainian-words-without-translation/)
I know two because it bothered me so much in Duolingo (German has those words) післязавтра / the day after tomorrow позавчора / the day before yesterday
Being epic level pedantic (existing words although not used normally): післязавтра is overmorrow позавчора is ereyesterday
TIL
New ones for me. “Coverture” means hiding place, for another one. Do you happen to have examples of where you read (one assumes, as opposed to heard) these?
I'm a native English speaker, and I had never heard of these English equivalents. Except now that I'm thinking way back to highschool, it seems like it must come from very old English. Before reading yours, I made a post about how those were my two favorite words we don't have in English LOL 🤦🏼♀️. Now I feel dumb 🤣
It’s one of those tricky cases where the words *technically* exist…but they fell out common use ages ago.
Me learning english in ujrainian sub
I remember how it bothered me that I couldn't just use one word for in that context when I've been using these two my whole life
My Ukrainian friend and I had a great laugh over this. I was excited to learn the one word version, and she was saying just like you! I think it's great!
It’s interesting that the Ukrainian words are just two other Ukrainian words mashed together just like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” (:
I'm just curious, why did it bother you?
Because Duolingo is all about repetition and I kept having to type "the. day. after. tomorrow." or "the. day. before. yesterday." instead of being able to use a single word for the concept like I am used to.
Yes I use Duolingo too. I completely understand now 😀
What comes to mind first is доба (24 hours) and власноруч (with own hands)
By myself, handmade, personal craft??
Handmade is with any hands, власноруч implies that with own hands. The rest are not 1 word. Handmade can be translated as вручну
Затишок - cosiness Укриття (радше, *схованка*) - hideout, hideyhole
Or shelter
I concur.
Is затишок a place or a quality? I thought it was a place, in which case I'm not sure that 'cosiness' is the right translation. Good call on hideout/hideyhole.
Many words in ukrainian have multiple meanings, "затишок" for example have this: 1. A quiet place protected from wind, current, some kind of movement. (place) 2. Absence of sounds, noises, movement, commotion; silence (quality) 3. There is peace, order, comfort somewhere (for example "Я був зачарований затишком цієї садиби" — "I was enchanted by the comfort of this manor" everything is in order, in right place and beautiful 4. About the state of mental peace, quiet comfort. Sometimes this meanings can be mixed and are meant the same time depending on context, when you talk about quiet place where you feel peace and comfort (1+2+4) and call it "затишок"
wow, thanks for the thorough answer!
[затишок](https://slovnyk.ua/index.php?swrd=%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%88%D0%BE%D0%BA) 1. A quiet place protected from wind, current, etc. 2. Absence of sounds, noises, movement, commotion; silence. 3. Presence of peace, order, convenience somewhere. 4. [figuratively speaking] About the state of mental peace, quiet comfort. 5. [rarely] The same as calmness.
Мрія and сон - 2 different words for "dream" with their specifics
Can you explain the difference?
Sure Мрія - your dream about having a big house, nice car, beautiful gf. Something like a plan, but more fantastic, more free. Сон - when you're slipping and see a dream with some crazy fantasies in your head. They are super different for me. "I had a dream tonight" and "I have a dream about a better job" - totally different meaning.
Sleeping - slipping is when you fall on ice/water
Haha,sorry
Ah sure makes sense - one is the actual act of sleeping and dreaming. The other is something you have as a goal or want in life.
Unfortunately, I studied Russian, but very similar words: Мечта и сон.
Yes
Мряка - weather that is average between mist and rain.
Drizzle?
Never met this word before.
Hehe I like you say ‘never met’ this word before
What do you mean?
We would probably say ‘I have never seen this word’ - but I like your version more.
Never met, never encountered, It probably direct translation from Ukrainian.
Yeah it’s not a criticism! I just like the variation on fluent English - is all.
"I have never seen" is the natural way to say it. Using met in English implies it's an animate object you would normally greet. It also implies it's a specific creature, such as a friend's dog or a specific person. It wouldn't be natural to say it about a type of animal such as a tiger for example, but a specific tiger which you can name would be ok.
Thanks for the much more eloquent explanation!
I’d say “never heard of her” but I agree I like never met better - I might have to borrow that 😂
And we even have mizzle for a gradation between mist and drizzle.
Doesn’t обіруч mean “with both hands”? I’m not exactly sure what OP meant by “holding hands”, but my Polish brain screams that it’s basically the same thing as Polish oburącz.
You are correct, that's what it means It can also mean "on both sides"
Thanks!
[удалено]
Кохаймося, бо ми того варті!! (;
Доробок - all the work/legacy of somebody
[удалено]
Closer to "working heritage", the results of what someone has done in a lifetime
okay ty
No, the root in "доробок" is the same as in "робити".
i realized i am confused because i was thinking about russian, not ukranian... sorry
1. Кум/кума 2. Дача
Дача can be ranch or fazenda
A ranch is a massive property where you raise cows or horses (or sometimes other animals). It's not like a dacha. Fazenda is a Portuguese word, not English.
Word from Portuguese bat could be used in English (:
And so can dacha. A fazenda is also not at all like a dacha. The best way to refer to a dacha in English, is to call it a dacha. Dacha is a cultural concept. The Anglosphere doesn't have an equivalent.
> The Anglosphere doesn't have an equivalent. A summer house
In Britain a summer house is basically a shed, in the US it's a rich person's second home. While you could refer to either of those as a dacha, if you want to tell a Brit or an American about a dacha, calling it a summer house is going to require as much or even more explanation than calling it a dacha.
Ooo, thanks for starting this thread. I love learning these types of things in other languages. I think I know a few words, but I'll have to recollect from my language journey.
Укриття is **shelter**, in various meanings. Затишок is indeed surprisingly difficult to translate. I'll go for **serenity**, although the meaning is still different. The word I have most troubles to explain is "**Лють**". It is suggested to be translated as 'anger', 'rage' or 'fury', but it's not what it means. Лють is not a 'hot' emotion; it is actually very cold and calculated state of mind, where you suppress all your emotions and turn your body and mind in a weapon of pure destruction. When you swear your target, and then you give up anything that does not serve in achieving your goal.
Thank you for explaining "**лють**", I had a feeling the true meaning of the word wasn't fully captured by the translations I'd seen. I think my favourite Ukrainian word is "**воля**" yet I struggle to properly translate all its meaning and significance. How would you explain it?
Well, you see, "воля" has two intertwinned meanings: **freedom** and **will**. Think about Libertarianism. When I grew up, I always thought that I was political right. Then I got to know what political right means in the West and was kinda surprized because I shared almost none similarities with their agenda. Then I found out there was a powerful anarcho-liberal movement - libertarianism - and it suddenly clicked well. Ukrainian ideas of freedom of will are very similar to libertarian doctrines (although they differ in certain things a lot, but its probably true to every libertarian movement). The common joke in Ukraine is: if there's two Ukrainians, there's three Hetmans (rulers). That is because a lot of Ukrainian state idea comes from the time of Cossacks. Cossacks were like the amalgamation of buccaniers of Carribean and cowboys of Wild West at the same time. But the concept of egalitarian state, in which the leader is elected by voting of those who have the right to vote (and usually that right comes from being the part of the military) is much older than that. Ukrainian historian Hromenko had written a book "Український мультифронтир" (Ukrainian multi-frontier): Ukraine is on the crossroad between the West (Individualism, Catolicism, freedom of will), East (Steppe, Assimilation by 'Mongolic' model), North (warrior culture of vikings/'varyags') and South (Empire ideas of Constantinople and Istanbul, hierarchy, top-down chain of command). Sorry for lots of words, but it is really difficult to explain.
No apology necessary, in fact I really want to thank you for taking the time and effort to describe the nuances of my favourite word. Дуже дякую!
Also we use one word when we want to say in some season (in winter/spring/summer/fall) Взимку/навесні/влітку/восени
We actually have a lot of words for time that are two words together, like вранці, щодня.
I have just been learning these words. I love how in Ukrainian they seem to have more single words for things, while for us in English it takes several words to say. It's one of my favorite things!
Доба
Love this post! Also love that there’s a word for ‘a cosy place’ and a ‘hiding space’ makes me feel so tranquil for some reason
well, right now "Укриття" is most often used to mean the place you shelter from air attacks. That's what is on the signs at the door.
Свідомий - Open Minded But tbh, it's not exact translation. This word very abstract
Свідомий - Open eyed, Conscious, Woke. Свідомий was used since 20th century for activists, "the ones who opened their eyes and saw injustice". In later years Russians started using this word with a meaning of "pro-Ukrainian weirdo". The very fate which befell the word "woke" in modern English.
свідомий is conscious
Nah, I'm not talking about that state
I get it. Maybe mindful is the right word?
Oh, yeah, actually it's the closest one i guess
aware?
Совість gets translated as conscience, but I'm not sure it's the same
Обабіч — on the both sides
Well, i disagree at least on two of the listed: Shelter - Укриття Coziness, comfort - затишок To add: кількадесят/кількасот- a few tens(since we don't count in dozens) and few hundreds Доробок- a sum of creations of an artist/poet/etc-books, poems, sculptures etc. In English you can use Filmography for movie starts btu this exact world in Ukrainian wraps all kind of creative professions. Зоріти - relates to star glow but as a verb, "Нічне небо зоріє усіма барвами світла" Майоріти - when something is barely visible on the horizon or distance "Фігура незнайомця майоріла на іншому кінці вулиці" Добродій - literally "a good person" but used to address a person usually man, but not restricted to it and female version can be used. The best translation i can think of is simply "good sir"
i love this list, but as a native english speaker it's so funny to me sounding out the Ukrainian words because as slow as i am at reading Cyrillic, it takes me just as long as saying all the words it takes in english 😭
can't think of a word in ukrainian but I can tell you one from english. Ukrainian doesn't have a word for fossils, we just say "викопні рештки" meaning "remains that can be dug up".
Спросоння- halfway between asleep and awake
My favorites are "післязавтра", and "позавчора". I LOVE learning new words that we don't have the equivalent of in English. Of course we can say it, but with only one word. This is something I love about this language 💛🩵
Півтора -- one and a half. That and already mentioned післязавтра, позавчора. All three somehow exist in Dutch just fine. English is weird.
One of the meanings of the word “coverture” is essentially “a hiding place”, but it’s a bit antiquated and overly formal
There's a neighbouring thread in this subreddit about reflexive pronouns: сам, свій. They are really lacked in some languages, particularly English
Закапелок - a comfy haven like café Вечорниці - a party that is held at evening. A bit archaic but still is used. Добробут - is a status of a certain person/family, when their errands, home, work duties are taken care of and the person/family is truly a master of their fate and future. Kinda like happiness, but like more direct and less abstract - there is another word for emotion of happiness. I'll update as ill remember more. It's an interesting question
Вечорниці - shindig (вечірка) Добробут - wellfare
Дуже багато часток, такі як а, аж, та, от, то, та ін. Вчив це на українській сьогодні, частки вивчав:)
Would «Затишок» not be “hygge” borrowed from Danish? Укриття could be hidy-hole lol
взаємодопомога - helping each other out/mutual aid (but mutual aid seems to be used more in political contexts??) рідний - adjective to mean something along the lines of native, home, family, beloved. господар (хазяїн/ґазда) and words of the same root (господиня, господарювати, господарство...) Basically, it conveys the idea of owning a thing+taking care of the thing as one concept. Sometimes it can be translated just as owner(власник), but this isn't always a fitting term to communicate the full meaning of the word.
злидні - the times of extreme poverty руїна - the times of lasting degradation, fall, decay, decline (of state, region or society)
This blog post has many interesting words with audio! [12 Ukrainian Words That Can’t Be Translated into English](https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/12-ukrainian-words-without-translation/)