"Вона вчила мову один рік."

Translation: She has studied the language for one year.

[GeneM.]

This sentence to me is lost in translation. I thought Вчила meant learned and read the sentence as "She learned the/a language in one year." Also, since there's no Ukrainian word in here to say "in" or "for" it further loses me with translation.

[ali.kinsella]

The verbs that have to do with knowledge acquisition are complicated in Ukrainian. Because "вчити" is an imperfective verb, it means the action is incomplete. So "study" is a better English approximation because "learn" generally implies that the action is over and the knowledge has been successfully acquired.

To say "in one year," there would have to be the preposition за: Вона вивчила мову за один рік, or She LEARNED (and here I'm using a perfective verb, вивчити) the language IN one year.

Hope this helps.

[GeneM.]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Every little bit helps!

[JowJow__]

"She studied the language for one year" should be a good answer

[SmithUA01]

is this a completed action or an ongoing one, or can it be both?

ie is "she studied the language for one year" ok, or does the case imply that she is still studying now?

[RuslanBes]

It can mean both

[mag_svyatoslav]

She has learned the language for one year. - не прийнято. Чи потрібно рапортувати?

[sagitta145]

Accepted now.

[RuslanBes]

Звicно. У цьому випадку learn та study обидва пiдходять

[Jer536793]

Can училася be used rather than вчила

[RuslanBes]

Technically you can say "Вона вчилася мові один рік" as well.

The училася/вчилася is however a bit different verb. I'll try to explain the difference.

The key is in the "-ся" part which approximately can be translated as (-self). For example:

Вона вчилался один рік - She studied (improved herself) for one year
Він учився на програміста - He studied (improved himself) to become a programmer

also

Вона вчилася писати один рік - she learned (improved herself) to write for one year.

When you have an object that is being studied (Math, Language, Biology etc.) then the best word to use is вчила (inf. вчити). For example:

Вона вчила математику один рік - She studied (what exactly?) Math for one year.

You can also say

Вона вчилася математиці один рік - (same meaning as above)

and that sounds also ok.