33 Comments
It occurred to me that кит is Russian for whale as well, and так means so/thus/in that way in Russian, so someone who didn't know that Russian о often changes to і in Ukrainian could easily misinterpret this sentence as "So, there's a whale there."
Okay, I'll stop being confusing now.
Thank you to unPlatypus for the Ukrainian word for "Thank you".
To SergioRuido: Would that also be "There is a cat." ?
It technically means the same thing, but if you want to say exactly "There is a cat." you can say also "Там є кіт".
"Є" ("is") is optional in the Present tense and is often omitted when there is no ambiguity. So you can also say Там кіт.
There is no strict order of words in Ukrainian, but some forms may just be more natural
I see your report. Probable misunderstood for possessive form. Stick to noncontracted forms, I guess.
I think "The cat's there" should really be a correct translation of this. The cat is there is also correct but I think most English speakers would more usually write the contraction, so it should be accepted.
And why did it call me out for leaving out an article in my English translation (even though it marked my answer "almost correct")? There are no articles in Ukrainian!
I expect this will be rough for a lot of people. The two forms have different pragmatic force. "The cat's there." is more a general statement of reality or a response to "Where's the cat?". "The cat is there." is usually either for writing or as a way to emphasize that the cat IS there, kind of like Кіт є там.
'Yes, the cat is there' is what I answer, but it is considered wrong. What's going on?
Yes, they're different.
In 'There is a cat, the 'there' is a pronoun and part of the verb 'is'. It means 'A cat exists' but doesn't say where. It could be 'There is a cat here' or 'There is a cat there'.
In 'The cat is there', the 'there' is an adverb and explains where the cat is. The 'there' refers to the location.
"Nope."
Only if "there is" is indicating a location. If "there is" is indicating existence, then "there" is not an adverb.
кіт, кішка, sounds funny to Russian ears, "whale," "intestines." And Ukrainian кит and кишка sound strange because there is no "ки" (Russian: кы) sound at all
