Present Tense Conjugation II in Ukrainian

In Brief

Ukrainian second-conjugation verbs use the present-tense endings -у/-ю, -иш/-їш, -ить/-їть, -имо/-їмо, -ите/-їте, -ать/-ять. For example, говорити “to speak” becomes говорю, говориш, говорить, говоримо, говорите, говорять. The ending identifies the subject, so Ukrainian can often leave out words such as я “I” and вони “they.”

Overview

The present tense describes what happens now, what happens regularly, or what is generally true. Ukrainian verbs belong to conjugation groups: a conjugation is simply a pattern of endings that changes according to who performs the action. This article covers the second conjugation, traditionally called II дієвідміна.

This is an A1 pattern because it lets you talk immediately about everyday actions and states: говорити “to speak,” бачити “to see,” любити “to love or like,” вчити “to learn or teach,” and робити “to do or make.” You first need to connect the six forms with the personal pronouns я, ти, він/вона/воно, ми, ви, вони.

English usually keeps the verb nearly unchanged—“I speak,” “you speak,” “we speak”—and requires an explicit subject. Ukrainian puts much more information in the verb ending. Говоримо українською already means “We speak Ukrainian”; ми is optional unless it adds emphasis or contrast.

How It Works

The basic endings

An infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, normally ending in -ти, such as говорити. To make the present tense, Ukrainian uses a present stem and adds a personal ending. With a regular verb such as говорити, the beginner-friendly procedure is to remove -ити and add the second-conjugation endings.

Person	Pronoun	Ending	говорити	English
1st person singular	я	-у/-ю	говорю	I speak
2nd person singular	ти	-иш/-їш	говориш	you speak
3rd person singular	він/вона/воно	-ить/-їть	говорить	he/she/it speaks
1st person plural	ми	-имо/-їмо	говоримо	we speak
2nd person plural	ви	-ите/-їте	говорите	you speak
3rd person plural	вони	-ать/-ять	говорять	they speak

The subject is the person or thing performing the action. “First person” means the speaker (я, ми), “second person” means the person addressed (ти, ви), and “third person” means anyone or anything else (він, вона, воно, вони).

The slash in -у/-ю or -ать/-ять does not mean that either ending can be chosen freely. The verb stem and Ukrainian spelling patterns determine which version appears. It is safest to learn a verb with at least its я and вони forms: говорити — говорю — говорять; бачити — бачу — бачать.

Three useful model verbs

The verbs in the concept examples show three common patterns.

Person	говорити “speak”	бачити “see”	любити “love/like”
я	говорю	бачу	люблю
ти	говориш	бачиш	любиш
він/вона/воно	говорить	бачить	любить
ми	говоримо	бачимо	любимо
ви	говорите	бачите	любите
вони	говорять	бачать	люблять

Говорити is a clear model: its stem remains easy to recognize throughout. Бачити has бачу, not the mechanically formed бачю. Ukrainian spelling requires у, rather than ю, after ч here. Любити adds л in the я and вони forms: люблю, люблять. This -л- also occurs after some other lip sounds in second-conjugation verbs, for example робити — роблю — роблять.

Stem changes are part of the pattern

Some verbs change the final consonant of their stem in the first-person singular. A stem is the part that carries the verb’s main meaning before the personal ending. Common examples include:

Infinitive	я form	Other useful form	Meaning
бачити	бачу	бачиш	see
вчити	вчу	вчиш	learn; teach
сидіти	сиджу	сидиш	sit
ходити	ходжу	ходиш	walk; go regularly
просити	прошу	просиш	ask; request
робити	роблю	робиш	do; make

Do not try to remove the final letters from the infinitive and guess every form from spelling alone. Learn я бачу, я сиджу, and я прошу as complete forms. The rest of each paradigm is then much more predictable.

Negatives and questions

To make a negative, place не directly before the verb:

• Я не бачу автобуса. — I do not see the bus.
• Ми не говоримо англійською вдома. — We do not speak English at home.

Ukrainian does not need an auxiliary like English “do” in present-tense questions. Intonation or the question particle чи can mark a question:

• Ти любиш каву? — Do you like coffee?
• Чи бачите ви екран? — Do you see the screen?

When the pronoun is omitted

Because говорю, говориш, and говоримо have different endings, the verb often makes the subject clear. Neutral everyday Ukrainian therefore allows:

• Говорю українською. — I speak Ukrainian.
• Бачимо ваш будинок. — We see your house.
• Любите джаз? — Do you like jazz?

Keep the pronoun when it clarifies, contrasts, or emphasizes the subject: Я говорю українською, а він говорить польською. “I speak Ukrainian, while he speaks Polish.” Unlike English, dropping the pronoun is not dropping necessary information; the ending still identifies the person.

Examples in Context

Ukrainian	English	Note
Я говорю українською щодня.	I speak Ukrainian every day.	я, regular action
Ти бачиш це?	Do you see this?	ти, question without “do”
Вона любить старі фільми.	She loves old films.	вона, third-person singular
Ми говоримо про роботу.	We are talking about work.	ми, action happening now
Ви добре бачите екран?	Can you see the screen well?	ви, plural or polite address
Вони вчать українську мову.	They are learning Ukrainian.	вони, вчать
Я не люблю холодну каву.	I do not like cold coffee.	Negative with не
Бачу нашу зупинку.	I see our stop.	я is understood from бачу
Що ти робиш зараз?	What are you doing now?	Present action
Ми сидимо біля вікна.	We are sitting by the window.	сидіти has сидимо
Чи говорите ви англійською?	Do you speak English?	чи marks a neutral question
Діти люблять музику.	The children love music.	Noun subject with люблять
Я прошу одну каву.	I would like one coffee.	Literally “I ask for”; просити — прошу
Олена вчить дітей математики.	Olena teaches the children mathematics.	вчити can mean “teach”

English uses both “I speak” and “I am speaking,” but Ukrainian normally uses the same present form говорю for both. Context—such as щодня “every day” or зараз “now”—shows whether the action is habitual or happening at this moment.

Common Mistakes

Keeping -ити inside the conjugated form

• Wrong: Я говорити українською.
• Right: Я говорю українською.
• Why: Говорити is the infinitive. A finite verb—a verb form tied to a person—needs the ending for я.

Mixing first- and second-conjugation endings

• Wrong: Вона говоре українською.
• Right: Вона говорить українською.
• Why: The second-conjugation third-person singular ending is -ить/-їть, not a first-conjugation ending.

Using one form for every subject

• Wrong: Ми говориш про фільм.
• Right: Ми говоримо про фільм.
• Why: -иш belongs to ти; ми takes -имо/-їмо.

Guessing the я form too mechanically

• Wrong: Я любю цю пісню.
• Right: Я люблю цю пісню.
• Why: Любити inserts л before the ending in люблю. Learn irregular-looking stem details with the verb.

Adding English-style “do” logic to questions

• Wrong idea: searching for a separate Ukrainian equivalent of “do” in Do you see it?
• Right: Ти бачиш це? or Чи ти бачиш це?
• Why: Ukrainian forms this present-tense question through intonation or чи, not an auxiliary “do.”

Choosing -ять for every plural verb

• Wrong: Вони бачять будинок.
• Right: Вони бачать будинок.
• Why: Second-conjugation verbs have -ать or -ять, depending on the stem and spelling pattern. Compare бачать but говорять and люблять.

Usage Notes

One Ukrainian form covers two English present forms

Ukrainian has no direct present-tense contrast matching English “she speaks” versus “she is speaking.” Вона говорить can express either one. Add time expressions when necessary: Вона часто говорить українською “She often speaks Ukrainian”; Вона зараз говорить телефоном “She is speaking on the phone now.”

Ти and ви

Use ти for one person in informal relationships. Use ви for more than one person and commonly for respectful address to one person. The verb form remains the ви form in both uses: Ви говорите українською? can mean “Do you all speak Ukrainian?” or polite singular “Do you speak Ukrainian?” Context supplies the difference.

Aspect affects present-time meaning

Ukrainian verbs have aspect, a way of presenting an action as ongoing/repeated or as a complete whole. The verbs in this lesson are imperfective and have genuine present-tense meanings. A perfective verb uses forms that look like present conjugations but normally refer to a completed future action. This is an important later topic; at A1, practise the common imperfective verbs here as ordinary presents.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master every exception yet, but the infinitive ending alone does not identify the conjugation with complete reliability. Many second-conjugation verbs end in -ити, but the group also includes verbs with other infinitive shapes, while some apparently similar verbs follow another pattern. Dictionaries and teaching materials often show the first-person singular and third-person plural because those forms reveal the useful stem and ending choices: любити, люблю, люблять.

Some high-frequency verbs have less predictable present forms even though several endings resemble the second conjugation. For example, хотіти has хочу, хочеш, хоче, хочемо, хочете, хочуть and should be learned as its own paradigm. Do not force a neat -иш/-ить pattern onto every infinitive ending in -іти.

Word order can also carry emphasis. Ukrainian allows more movement than English because endings and case forms—changes to words that show their role in a sentence—preserve grammatical relationships. Compare neutral Я люблю цю пісню “I like this song” with Цю пісню я люблю “This song, I do like.” The conjugation does not change, but the fronted phrase receives contrastive focus.

Finally, a stated pronoun can sound strongly contrastive when it is not needed for identification: Я говорю, а ти слухаєш “I speak, and you listen.” As you advance, notice that choosing whether to state the pronoun is part of natural style, not merely an optional deletion exercise.

Practice Tips

1. Learn verbs in a three-form set. Record the infinitive, я, and вони forms together: робити — роблю — роблять, бачити — бачу — бачать. This captures the stem changes that an English translation cannot show.
2. Run a six-person drill. Choose one verb and say all six forms with pronouns, then repeat without pronouns. For example: я говорю, ти говориш… followed by говорю, говориш….
3. Build paired contexts. Write one habitual and one “right now” sentence with the same Ukrainian form: Я читаю щовечора and Я читаю зараз. This trains you not to search for a separate equivalent of English “am/is/are + -ing.”

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Personal Pronouns — connect я, ти, він/вона/воно, ми, ви, вони with the six verb forms.
• Next step: Modal Verbs — use forms such as можу, хочу, and мушу before another infinitive.
• Next step: Expressing Likes — compare любити with the different structure used by подобатися.