"Моя сестра - дизайнер."

Translation: My sister is a designer.

[AileTheAlien]

In English, we have a similar format, like: "My sister - the designer." Is the dash being used differently here? Like, the dash literally means "is a"?

[jmango2]

It's the latter. The verb to be isn't usually used in the present tense in modern Ukrainian, so the – indicates where it was omitted.

[spicy_wolf]

I agree with what jmago said. If the ommittance of "to be" is hard to understand in the beginning, you can use a construction like "ye +ajective/pronoun+noun" with changed affixes: moya sestra ye dyzaynerom/Моя сестра є дизайнером. Another example, with an ajective: A rose is a beautiful flower: Троянда є красивою квіткою/Troyanda ye krasyvoyu kvitkoyu.

[IvankaBrown]

Is the dash obligatory? is it possible to just write 'Моя сестра дизайнер'.