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- "Це мама, а це тато."
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Which form of and do I use?
In Ukrainian, there are four words that mean and; і, та, а and й. Three of them; і, та and й are all used to link similar things, the only reason we have so many is so we can switch them around to make the language flow and sound more melodic.
- Мама і тато - Mom and dad
- Та я! - And me!
- Мова й алфавіт - Language and alphabet
It's really up to you when you want to use them :)
But on the other hand, а is used to contrast between two different things. It roughly corresponds to the English whereas.
- Мама там, а тато тут - Mom is there, and/whereas dad is here
- Я працюю а ти танюєш - I work and/whereas you work
- Мене звати Віктор а вас звати Вєра - My name is Victor and/whereas your name is Viera
I read before that the 3 interchangeable ands are best used to create harmonic cadence in the language between the vowels and consonants of the surrounding words as follows: consonant i consonant, vowel ta consonant, vowel Ň vowel. Ach! Sorry I can't get Cyrillic keyboard during this post. It is very similar to using a or an in English, where before a vowel we use an and before a consonant we use a.
Different forms are used for this, these and this is
- Цей чоловік - Masculine Singular Nominative (This man)
- Ця жінка - Feminine Singular Nominative (This woman)
- Це місто - Neuter Singular Nominative (This town/city)
- Ці лавці - Plural Nominative (These benches
Це місто can mean "this is a city" or "this city", you'll have to rely on context