How To Talk About Your Family In Ukrainian
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Family is a central part of Ukrainian culture.
Learning family vocabulary will immediately improve your daily conversations with native speakers.
You’ll use these words constantly when introducing yourself, sharing stories, or asking people about their lives.
I’ll show you the exact words for family members and how to use them in everyday Ukrainian.
Table of contents:
The word for family in Ukrainian
There are two main words for “family” in Ukrainian.
The most common word is сім’я (sim’ya).
You’ll use this word to describe your immediate household unit.
The second word is родина (rodyna).
This word refers to your broader extended family or bloodline.
Both words are feminine nouns in Ukrainian.
Immediate family members
You’ll talk about your immediate family more than any other relatives.
Ukrainians often use affectionate, shorter forms of words for parents in daily life.
For example, we usually say мама instead of the formal мати (mother).
We also say тато instead of the formal батько (father).
| English | Ukrainian | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Mother | мама / мати | mama / maty |
| Father | тато / батько | tato / bat’ko |
| Brother | брат | brat |
| Sister | сестра | sestra |
| Son | син | syn |
| Daughter | донька | don’ka |
| Husband | чоловік | cholovik |
| Wife | дружина | druzhyna |
| Children | діти | dity |
Extended family members
It’s also helpful to know how to refer to your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Grandparents are highly respected in Ukrainian society and are heavily involved in raising children.
You’ll frequently hear people lovingly talking about their бабуся (grandmother) and дідусь (grandfather).
The Ukrainian words for cousins literally translate to “second-cousin brother” and “second-cousin sister”.
| English | Ukrainian | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Grandmother | бабуся | babusya |
| Grandfather | дідусь | didus’ |
| Aunt | тітка | titka |
| Uncle | дядько | dyad’ko |
| Cousin (male) | двоюрідний брат | dvoyuridnyy brat |
| Cousin (female) | двоюрідна сестра | dvoyuridna sestra |
Talking about your family in conversation
Knowing the nouns is only the first step.
You also need to know how to introduce your relatives to others.
To say “This is my…”, you’ll use the word це (this is) followed by the correct possessive pronoun.
Use мій (miy) for male relatives and моя (moya) for female relatives.
Це мій брат.
Це моя мама.
You’ll also want to know how to say that you have certain family members.
In Ukrainian, we express “I have” by saying У мене є (U mene ye).
У мене є сестра.
У мене є чоловік.
You can ask someone else about their family using similar simple structures.
У тебе є діти?
Скільки років твоєму сину?
Learning these basic family terms gives you a great foundation for connecting with Ukrainians.
