"Мої друзі на вокзалі."

Translation: My friends are at the train station.

[LeBalochard]

One of my problems is that in learning Ukrainian over the past few years, I have a BIG problem with distinguishing "на" versus "у/в" for the prepositions "at" versus "in". How would one express this sentence in Ukrainian - "My friends are in the train station." (This sentence expressing the fact that my friends are actually physically inside the train station building as opposed to a general spatial location.) Or does "на вокзалі" convey spatial information that they are inside the station building?

[Vinnfred]

Some nouns traditionally use на. "У вокзалі" sounds really strange, if you need to specify that your friends are in the actual building you can say "у приміщенні вокзалу" (that's literally "in the train station building").

The thing is, "train station" is actually залізнична станція in Ukrainian. And "вокзал" is a station building. But we commonly use вокзал to refer to all the station complex. And станція is used more for suburban stations or stations in countryside.

[LeBalochard]

Oh wow...залізнична станція sounds like a literal translation of "station of iron", much like the old French "gare de chemin de fer" - "station of the path/track of iron" where train was signified by "chemin de fer" - "path/track of iron". Thankfully now train station is simply "la gare" / "вокзал". . . :)

[Vinnfred]

And "railway" is залізниця :) (both the "way" and the complex)

Ukrainian railway company is called "Укрзалізниця"

So залізнична is adjective from залізниця and залізнична станція is actually "railway station" (but they are synonyms with "train station", right?)

[spicy_wolf]

station of iron would be smth like залізна станція. Thank you for the French connotations, though:)

[vincewega]

I said 'station' for вокзалі..... and got it wrong..... it was train station(((((( i cry.....

[kebukebu]

Strange etymology. May have come (by way of Russian) from the English place name Vauxhall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall#History

[Vinnfred]

Вокзал indeed comes from Vauxhall. One of the railway stations in XIXth century Saint Petersburg had that name. зал is Russian/Ukranian for hall

[kebukebu]

Yes.. that reminds me of another Russian word, спортзал "sport(s) hall/gym".

[Vinnfred]

"Спортзал" is short for "спортивный зал".

Зал in Ukrainian is actually зала (feminine), but вокзал isn't short form of anything, so we just use the way it is

[IvanDela4]

I though that вокзал can be bus main station also.

[UmbambaTim]

The L here at the end seems to be light L rather than a Dark L, so should it not be spellet Вокзальі?