Grammar Reference
Adverbs
Adverbs are so-called “frozen” forms; that is, they do not change for gender, number or case.
Ex: сьогодні “today,” нудно “bored,” додому “homewards.”
Depending upon the information that adverbs bring to a sentence, they fall into several groups. In this resource, we have:
- adverbs of time: вранці “in the morning,” вдень “in the afternoon,” ввечері “in the evening,” вночі “at night,” на вихідних “at the weekend,” у вільний час “in the free time”;
- adverbs of time for seasons: взимку “in winter,” навесні “in spring,” влітку “in summer,” восени “in fall”;
- adverbs of frequency:
used in sentences with imperfective verbs: ніколи “never,” зрідка “seldom,” іноді “sometimes,” часто “often,” зазвичай “usually,” завжди “always,” щодня “every day”;
used in sentences with perfective verbs: нарешті “finally,” зненацька “suddenly,” несподівано “unexpectedly,” в одну мить “in one moment,” миттєво “momentarily,” зразу ж “right away,” “immediately”; - adverbs to describe weather conditions: холодно “[it is] cold,” слизько “[it is] slippery,” тепло “[it is] warm,” вітряно “[it is] windy,” спекотно “[it is] hot,” волого “[it is] wet,” сонячно “[it is] sunny,” ясно “[it is] bright,” хмарно “[it is] cloudy,” прохолодно “[it is] chilly”;
- adverbs of feelings: нудно “[to feel] bored,” сумно “[to feel] sad,” цікаво “[to feel] interested,” приємно “[to feel] pleased,” смішно “[to feel] bursting with laughter,” страшно “[to feel] scared,” весело “[to be having] fun”;
- adverbs of quantity: багато “many/much,” більше “more,” мало “little,” менше “less,” трохи “a little”;
- adverbs used as question words: куди “where to,” де “where”;
- adverbs of advice: треба “need,” потрібно “[it is] necessary,” необхідно “must,” варто “[it is] worth,” можна “[it is] possible/can.”
Note: In Ukrainian, some adverbs are formed from adjectives. For instance, from the adjective холодни-ий “cold,” we can form the adverb холодн-о “[it’s] cold [outside]” by substituting the adjectival ending with the adverbial -o, which is the most common.
There are also adverbs, formed from adjectives, whose stem ends on consonants -ж, -ч, -ш, and -щ that end on -e: гаряч-е “hot,” більш-е “more,” кращ-е “better.”