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# French and Ukrainian: the pair manual

**On this page**

1. [0. Data and the relay problem](#0-data-and-the-relay-problem)
2. [1. The contrasts at a glance](#1-the-contrasts-at-a-glance)
3. [2. The noun phrase](#2-the-noun-phrase)
4. [3. Pronouns and address](#3-pronouns-and-address)
5. [4. The verb](#4-the-verb)
6. [5. Negation](#5-negation)
7. [6. Word order and information structure](#6-word-order-and-information-structure)
8. [7. The lexicon](#7-the-lexicon)
9. [8. Register](#8-register)
10. [9. Idioms and proverbs](#9-idioms-and-proverbs)
11. [10. Culture-bound items](#10-culture-bound-items)
12. [11. Names, numbers, dates, typography](#11-names-numbers-dates-typography)
13. [12. Songs](#12-songs)
14. [13. Quality checks for French–Ukrainian](#13-quality-checks-for-frenchukrainian)
15. [14. Corpus evidence: French–Ukrainian Tatoeba](#14-corpus-evidence-frenchukrainian-tatoeba)
16. [15. The Bible: Louis Segond and Kulish/Puluj](#15-the-bible-louis-segond-and-kulishpuluj)
17. [16. Terminology by domain](#16-terminology-by-domain)
18. [17. How Mova handles it](#17-how-mova-handles-it)
19. [Sources](#sources)

French and Ukrainian are an unusual pair to translate between directly: most translations between them have long gone through English or Russian, and both relays leave marks. Yet the two languages are closer to each other in several ways than either is to English. Both have grammatical gender, *tu/vous* and *ти/ви*, reflexive verbs, a perfective/imperfective opposition in the past (French by tense, Ukrainian by aspect), a subjunctive-like clause after verbs of wish and purpose (French *que* + subjunctive, Ukrainian *щоб* + past form), negative concord, and a "genitive of negation" in Ukrainian that matches the French *de* after negation. They differ in articles (French has them, Ukrainian none), in case (Ukrainian has seven), in word order (fixed with dislocation in French, free in Ukrainian), in pronoun placement (French clitics before the verb), and in the gender of most nouns. This manual sets them side by side, both directions. The general rules are in [general.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/general/); the one-sided manuals are [from-fr.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-fr/), [into-fr.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/), [from-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-uk/), [into-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-uk/).

## 0. Data and the relay problem

Since 2026-11-06 Mova holds two French–Ukrainian corpora, built with [tools/parallel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/tools/parallel/) and described in README.md: **Tatoeba FR–UK** (34 310 sentence pairs, CC BY 2.0 FR, ids `tatoeba:<fr id>-<uk id>`) and **Louis Segond 1910 against the Kulish/Puluj Bible of 1905** (28 433 verses, public domain, `bible-lsg-kulish:<BOOK>_<c>:<v>`). They are quoted in §14 and §15; the examples elsewhere are constructed unless an id is given.

**Translate directly, not through English.** A relay through English loses exactly what the two languages share: *tu/vous* ↔ *ти/ви* (English has one *you*), the gender of people (English role nouns are neutral), the perfective/imperfective split (English simple past has neither), the subjunctive's purpose clause. A French *Je suis contente qu'elle soit venue* goes into Ukrainian directly as *Я рада, що вона прийшла*, with the speaker's and the visitor's gender intact; through English (*I'm glad she came*) the speaker's gender is lost and must be guessed back. When a relay is unavoidable, the relay translator should annotate gender, formality and aspect.

**Mind the Russian relay too.** Much French–Ukrainian vocabulary and many constructions came into Ukrainian through Russian, and some are criticised calques of French via Russian: *мати місце* (*avoir lieu*, through Russian *иметь место*; native *відбуватися*, *траплятися*), *приймати участь* (*prendre part*, through Russian; native *брати участь*). In current neutral Ukrainian prefer the native forms, which also lead in the historical counts ([into-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-uk/) §4.3).

## 1. The contrasts at a glance

| area | French | Ukrainian | the translator's task |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| articles | *un*, *le*, *du* | none | fr → uk: order, demonstratives, case (partitive genitive); uk → fr: supply |
| gender | masculine, feminine | masculine, feminine, neuter | nouns change gender; neuter has no French match |
| case | none on nouns | seven | prepositions ↔ endings |
| *you* | *tu* / *vous* | *ти* / *ви* | direct, with the family exception |
| past | passé composé / passé simple vs imparfait | perfective vs imperfective | close mapping |
| subjunctive | *que* + subjunctive | *щоб* + past form; indicative after *що* | map by trigger |
| conditional | *si* + imparfait, conditionnel | *якби* + past, *би* + past | direct |
| pronouns | clitics before the verb; *y*, *en* | free pronouns; zero subjects | reorder; resolve *y*, *en* |
| possessives | agree with the thing | *його/її* agree with the owner; *свій* for the subject | the owner's gender appears in Ukrainian |
| *on* | "we", "people", "someone" | 3rd plural, 2nd singular generic, *-но/-то*, 1st plural | read each |
| negation | *ne … pas*; concord; *de* after negation | *не*; concord; genitive of negation | direct |
| order | SVO, dislocation, clefts | free; given → new | clefts ↔ order |
| address | *Monsieur*, *Madame* | vocative, *пане*, *пані* | add vocative fr → uk |
| typography | « » with spaces; space before `; : ! ?` | « » without spaces | adjust |

## 2. The noun phrase

### 2.1 Articles and the partitive genitive

French → Ukrainian: the definite and indefinite article's information goes into word order (the new last), demonstratives (*ce*, *cette* → *цей*, *ця*) or nothing:

- *Une femme est entrée dans la boutique.* → *До крамниці зайшла жінка.*
- *La femme est entrée dans la boutique.* → *Жінка зайшла до крамниці.*

The **partitive** has a Ukrainian counterpart in the **partitive genitive** with perfective verbs and in requests: *Donne-moi du pain* → *Дай хліба* (genitive: "some bread") against *Дай хліб* ("the bread", accusative); *Il a bu de l'eau* → *Він напився води*; *J'ai acheté du lait* → *Я купив молока*. Where Ukrainian uses the accusative, the meaning is the whole or a specific quantity.

The **generic definite** (*J'aime le café*; *Les enfants aiment jouer*) is Ukrainian zero: *Я люблю каву*; *Діти люблять гратися*.

Ukrainian → French: every noun phrase needs a determiner, chosen by given/new, specific/generic, count/mass ([into-fr.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/) §6.1).

### 2.2 Gender of things

The two languages assign gender to things independently, and Ukrainian has a neuter:

| French | Ukrainian |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *le soleil* (m.) | *сонце* (n.) |  |
| *la lune* (f.) | *місяць* (m.) | the moon is masculine in Ukrainian folk poetry (*ясний місяць*) and feminine in French song (*Au clair de la lune*) |
| *la mer* (f.) | *море* (n.) |  |
| *la mort* (f.) | *смерть* (f.) |  |
| *le livre* (m.) | *книжка* (f.) |  |
| *la table* (f.) | *стіл* (m.) |  |
| *la ville* (f.) | *місто* (n.) |  |
| *l'enfant* (m./f.) | *дитина* (f., for any child) |  |

Gender matters to the translator when it carries an image: personifications, allegories, folk songs (*la Mort* is a woman in French iconography; *смерть* is too; *le Soleil* is a king; *сонце* is neuter, often *сонечко*). A personified noun whose gender changes may need another noun (a French poem's masculine *le vent* lover may stay *вітер* m.; a French feminine *la nuit* lover may become *ніч* f.).

### 2.3 Gender of people

Both languages show the gender of people in nouns and agreement: *Je suis contente* ↔ *Я рада* (both feminine); *une étudiante* ↔ *студентка*; *la directrice* ↔ *директорка*; *la ministre* ↔ *міністерка* or *міністр* with a feminine verb (conservative). French institutional feminitives and Ukrainian feminitives both spread strongly in recent decades (*la rapporteure*; *доповідачка*), and a direct translation keeps the person's gender without guessing. The French generic masculine (*les étudiants*) maps onto the Ukrainian one (*студенти*); French inclusive forms (*les étudiant·es*, *celles et ceux*) onto Ukrainian doubled forms (*студенти й студентки*) where the house style uses them.

### 2.4 Possessives

French possessives agree with the thing (*sa mère*: his or her mother); Ukrainian *його/її* name the owner's gender, and *свій* refers to the subject. So French → Ukrainian must decide what French left open: *Marie a appelé sa mère* → *Марія подзвонила своїй мамі* (her own); *Paul a vu Marie avec sa sœur* → *Павло бачив Марію з її сестрою* or *зі своєю сестрою* (his own): the context decides, and the Ukrainian is explicit where the French was not. Ukrainian → French: *його*, *її*, *свій* all become *son/sa/ses*; the owner may need a name or *à lui* / *à elle* where ambiguity matters.

### 2.5 Adjectives

French adjectives mostly follow the noun; Ukrainian ones precede it (*un livre rouge* → *червона книжка*), except in poetic and folk inversion (*калина червона*). French position-dependent meanings (*un grand homme* / *un homme grand*; *ancien*, *propre*, *pauvre*) become different Ukrainian words (*велика людина* / *висока людина*; *колишній* / *старовинний*; *власний* / *чистий*; *бідолашний* / *бідний*).

## 3. Pronouns and address

### 3.1 *Tu/vous* and *ти/ви*

The two systems match closely: *tu* ↔ *ти*, *vous* ↔ *ви*, both for the plural and the polite singular. Differences of use:

- Ukrainian traditionally addresses parents, grandparents and elders in the family with *ви*; French uses *tu*. A French child's *Maman, tu viens ?* is *Мамо, ти прийдеш?* in current urban Ukrainian and *Мамо, ви прийдете?* in traditional rural speech: the choice places the family.
- Ukrainian capitalises the polite *Ви* to one addressee in letters; French does not capitalise *vous*.
- Both languages have speakers who switch from *vous/ви* to *tu/ти* as an event (*On peut se tutoyer ?* → *Може, перейдемо на «ти»?*): translate the switch directly.

### 3.2 Clitics, *y* and *en*

French clitics precede the verb (*Je le lui ai donné*); Ukrainian pronouns are free and tend to stand early but not necessarily before the verb (*Я дав його йому* / *Я йому його дав*). *Y* and *en* must be resolved: *J'y pense* → *Я про це думаю*; *J'en ai deux* → *У мене їх два* (two, masculine antecedent) / *дві* (feminine) — the antecedent's gender and the numeral's case now matter. Ukrainian → French: insert *y* and *en* where French needs them (*Про це я думаю* → *J'y pense*; *Яблук? У мене три* → *Des pommes ? J'en ai trois*).

### 3.3 Dropped subjects

French subjects are obligatory; Ukrainian ones are often dropped. French → Ukrainian: drop *je*, *tu*, *nous*, *vous* in most narrative and dialogue (*Je pense que je viendrai* → *Думаю, що прийду*). Ukrainian → French: supply every subject; the Ukrainian past ending gives the gender for the French participle (*Прийшла пізно* → *Elle est arrivée tard*).

### 3.4 *On*

| French *on* | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| "we" (spoken): *On y va ?* | *Ходімо?*, *Ідемо?* (1st plural, often without *ми*) |
| "people": *On dit que …* | *Кажуть, що …* (3rd plural without subject) |
| "someone": *On a frappé.* | *Хтось постукав.* / *Постукали.* |
| generic: *On ne sait jamais.* | *Ніколи не знаєш.* (2nd singular generic), *Хтозна* |
| passive substitute: *On m'a dit …* | *Мені сказали …* |
| official impersonal: *On a constaté que …* | *Встановлено, що …* (*-но/-то*) |

Ukrainian → French, the subjectless forms (*Кажуть*, *Встановлено*, generic *знаєш*) become *on*.

### 3.5 The vocative

French has no vocative; Ukrainian uses it in every address: *Pierre !* → *П'єре!*; *Monsieur le professeur* → *Пане професоре*; *Madame* → *Пані*; *Mes amis* → *Друзі мої*; *Maman !* → *Мамо!*. Foreign names take the vocative where their form allows (*Жане!*, *П'єре!*, *Маріє!*); not otherwise (*Жан-Люк!*).

## 4. The verb

### 4.1 Past tenses and aspect: a close mapping

French splits the past by tense into perfective (passé composé, passé simple) and imperfective (imparfait); Ukrainian by aspect. The mapping is closer than either to English:

| French | Ukrainian | example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| passé composé / passé simple, event | perfective past | *Il ouvrit la porte et sortit.* → *Він відчинив двері й вийшов.* |
| imparfait, background | imperfective past | *Il pleuvait quand je suis sorti.* → *Ішов дощ, коли я вийшов.* |
| imparfait, habit | imperfective past | *Chaque été, nous allions à la mer.* → *Щоліта ми їздили до моря.* |
| passé composé of a process stated as a whole | imperfective past (general-factual) or perfective | *J'ai lu ce livre* (have read it at some point) → *Я читав цю книжку*; (finished it) → *Я прочитав цю книжку* |
| plus-que-parfait | past perfective + *уже*, *перед тим* | *Il était déjà parti quand j'arrivai.* → *Він уже пішов, коли я прийшов.* |
| présent + *depuis* | present + *уже* | *J'attends depuis une heure.* → *Я чекаю вже годину.* |
| *venir de* | perfective past + *щойно* | *Je viens d'arriver.* → *Я щойно приїхав.* |
| *aller* + infinitive | perfective future, *збиратися* | *Je vais l'appeler.* → *Я йому подзвоню.* |
| futur simple | future perfective or imperfective | *Je le lirai demain* → *Прочитаю завтра*; *Je lirai toute la soirée* → *Читатиму весь вечір* |
| historic present | historic present | Ukrainian narrative uses it as French does |

The French **passé simple**'s written character has no Ukrainian tense of its own; it is kept by the literary style of the Ukrainian narrative. Ukrainian → French: perfective past → passé composé (speech, letters, journalism) or passé simple (written narrative); imperfective past → imparfait, or passé composé for a general-factual statement (*Ти читав цю книжку?* → *Tu as lu ce livre ?*).

### 4.2 The subjunctive and *щоб*

French *que* + subjunctive after wish, purpose, necessity and some conjunctions maps onto Ukrainian **щоб + past form** (the old conditional):

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *Je veux que tu viennes.* | *Я хочу, щоб ти прийшов.* |
| *Il faut que tu l'aides.* | *Треба, щоб ти їй допоміг.* / *Тобі треба їй допомогти.* |
| *Je l'explique pour que tu comprennes.* | *Пояснюю, щоб ти зрозумів.* |
| *Je cherche quelqu'un qui sache le russe.* | *Шукаю когось, хто знав би російську.* |
| *Bien qu'il soit malade, il travaille.* | *Хоч він і хворий, він працює.* (indicative) |
| *Je suis content qu'elle soit venue.* | *Я радий, що вона прийшла.* (indicative after *що*) |
| *avant qu'il ne pleuve* (expletive *ne*) | *поки не почався дощ*, *до того, як почнеться дощ* (Ukrainian *поки не* is also a non-negative *не*) |

Note the last line: Ukrainian *поки не* ("until") contains a *не* that is not a negation, like the French expletive *ne*. Translators who negate either reverse the sense.

### 4.3 Conditionals

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais.* | *Якби я мав час, я б прийшов.* |
| *Si j'avais eu le temps, je serais venu.* | *Якби я мав (тоді) час, я б прийшов.* (one form: the context gives the past) |
| *Je voudrais un café.* | *Я хотів би каву.* / *Можна каву?* |
| *Il serait malade* (reported, unconfirmed) | *Він нібито хворий*, *Кажуть, він хворий* |

Ukrainian has one conditional (*би* + past form) for present and past counterfactuals; French distinguishes them. Ukrainian → French, choose by context.

### 4.4 Reflexive verbs

Both languages have reflexive verbs, often the same ones: *se laver* ↔ *митися*, *se lever* ↔ *вставати* (not reflexive in Ukrainian!), *se souvenir* ↔ *пам'ятати* (not reflexive), *s'asseoir* ↔ *сідати* (not reflexive), *se moquer de* ↔ *глузувати з*; and the other way: *сміятися* ↔ *rire* (not reflexive), *боятися* ↔ *avoir peur*, *вчитися* ↔ *apprendre*. French pronominal passive (*Ce vin se boit frais*) ↔ Ukrainian *-ся* passive (*Це вино п'ється охолодженим*, possible, or *Це вино п'ють охолодженим*).

### 4.5 Verbs of motion

Ukrainian distinguishes determinate and indeterminate motion (*іти/ходити*, *їхати/їздити*, *летіти/літати*) and walking from riding (*іти* / *їхати*); French *aller* covers all. *Je vais à Lyon demain* → *Завтра я їду до Ліона* (by vehicle); *Je vais à l'école* (habit) → *Я ходжу до школи*; (now) → *Я йду до школи*. French chassé-croisé constructions (*traverser à la nage*) become Ukrainian prefixed manner verbs (*перепливти*): *Il traversa la rivière à la nage* → *Він переплив річку*; *Elle est sortie en courant* → *Вона вибігла*.

### 4.6 Experiencers and possession

French *avoir* constructions and Ukrainian dative constructions:

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *J'ai froid.* | *Мені холодно.* |
| *J'ai trente ans.* | *Мені тридцять років.* |
| *J'ai besoin d'aide.* | *Мені потрібна допомога.* |
| *Tu me manques.* | *Я сумую за тобою.* / *Мені тебе бракує.* (the roles: in French the missed one is the subject; in Ukrainian *бракувати* keeps that order, *сумувати* reverses it) |
| *Ce film me plaît.* | *Мені подобається цей фільм.* (the same structure: experiencer dative, thing as subject) |
| *J'ai une sœur.* | *У мене є сестра.* |
| *Il y a un problème.* | *Є проблема.* |

## 5. Negation

The two systems match closely:

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *Je ne sais pas.* | *Я не знаю.* |
| *Personne n'a rien dit.* | *Ніхто нічого не сказав.* |
| *Je n'ai jamais rien vu.* | *Я ніколи нічого не бачив.* |
| *Je n'ai pas de temps.* (*de* after negation) | *У мене немає часу.* (genitive of negation) |
| *Je n'ai pas vu de voiture.* | *Я не бачив жодної машини.* / *машини* (genitive) |
| *Je n'ai que deux euros.* | *У мене лише два євро.* |
| *Il n'y a point de …* (literary) | *Немає …* |
| *ne* dropped in speech (*Je sais pas*) | no counterpart: Ukrainian *не* is never dropped; the colloquial mark goes elsewhere (*Та не знаю я*, *Хтозна*) |

## 6. Word order and information structure

French clefts and dislocations correspond to Ukrainian order and particles:

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *C'est Marie qui a appelé.* | *Дзвонила Марія.* / *Це Марія дзвонила.* |
| *C'est demain qu'il part.* | *Він їде саме завтра.* / *Їде він завтра.* |
| *Moi, je pense que …* | *Я ж думаю, що …* / *А я думаю, що …* |
| *Mon frère, il habite à Lyon.* | *Мій брат живе в Ліоні.* (topic first, no resumptive pronoun) |
| *Ce livre, je l'ai lu.* | *Цю книжку я читав.* (object first) |
| *Il est arrivé un accident.* (impersonal) | *Сталася аварія.* (verb first, new subject last) |

Ukrainian → French: a Ukrainian sentence with the new subject last often becomes a French impersonal (*il y a*, *il est arrivé*) or a sentence with an indefinite article (*Une lettre est arrivée*); object-first order becomes dislocation (*Ce livre, je l'ai lu*) or a passive.

## 7. The lexicon

### 7.1 French words in Ukrainian

Ukrainian has many French borrowings, most of them through Russian or Polish in the 18th–19th centuries: *пляж* (*plage*), *шофер* (*chauffeur*), *бюро* (*bureau*), *фойє* (*foyer*), *жалюзі* (*jalousie*), *тротуар* (*trottoir*), *пальто* (*paletot*), *манто*, *кашне* (*cache-nez*), *кафе*, *ресторан*, *меню*, *бульйон*, *десерт*, *майонез*, *парфуми* (*parfum*), *макіяж*, *шарм*, *етикет*, *кар'єра*, *режисер* (*régisseur*), *афіша* (*affiche*), *гараж*, *шасі*, *дебют*, *партнер*. Most are true friends in their core sense; some have shifted.

### 7.2 False friends

| French | means | Ukrainian look-alike | look-alike means | ✓ Ukrainian |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *le journal* | newspaper | *журнал* | magazine; register | *газета* |
| *la revue* | magazine, review | *ревю* | revue (show) | *журнал*, *часопис* |
| *la figure* | face | *фігура* | figure, body shape | *обличчя* |
| *le régime* | diet; regime | *режим* | regime; schedule, mode | *дієта* / *режим* |
| *la machine* | machine | *машина* | car (colloquial), machine | *машина*, *апарат* |
| *la serviette* | towel; napkin; briefcase | *серветка* | napkin | *рушник* / *серветка* / *портфель* |
| *le salon* | living room; trade fair | *салон* | salon; car interior; shop (*салон краси*) | *вітальня* / *виставка* |
| *le cadre* | frame; executive | *кадр* | film frame; (pl.) personnel | *рамка* / *керівник* |
| *la pension* | boarding house; pension | *пенсія* | pension | *пансіон* / *пенсія* |
| *la conférence* | lecture; conference | *конференція* | conference | *лекція* / *конференція* |
| *le parfum* | scent, flavour; perfume | *парфуми* | perfume | *аромат*, *смак* / *парфуми* |
| *l'éducation* | upbringing; education | *освіта* (education) / *виховання* (upbringing) |  | by sense |
| *actuel* | current | *актуальний* | topical, relevant | *нинішній*, *теперішній* |
| *sympathique* | nice, friendly | *симпатичний* | nice; good-looking | *приємний*, *симпатичний* |
| *la chaussée* | roadway | *шосе* | highway | *проїжджа частина* |
| *la brigade* | (police, military) unit | *бригада* | work team; military brigade | by sense |
| *l'artiste* | artist (any art) | *артист* | performer, actor | *митець*, *художник* / *артист* |
| *le diplomate* | diplomat | *дипломат* | diplomat; briefcase (colloquial) |  |
| *la marque* | brand; mark | *марка* | stamp; brand | *бренд*, *марка* / *позначка* |
| *une décade* | ten days | *декада* | ten days | true friends |
| *le magasin* | shop | *магазин* | shop | true friends |
| *la carrière* | career; quarry | *кар'єра* | career; *кар'єр* = quarry | by sense |
| *le bal* | ball (dance) | *бал* | ball; score, point | by sense |
| *le bureau* | desk; office | *бюро* | office, bureau; writing desk (old) | *стіл* / *офіс*, *бюро* |
| *la cabine* | cabin, booth | *кабіна* | cabin (vehicle), booth | true friends mostly |
| *familier* | familiar, colloquial | *фамільярний* | over-familiar (pejorative) | *знайомий* / *розмовний* |

### 7.3 Anglicisms in both, and their Ukrainian–French equivalents

French and Ukrainian borrow many of the same English words, and translation between them should not route a borrowing through English blindly: French *le week-end* ↔ Ukrainian *вихідні* (neutral) or *вікенд* (colloquial); French *le défi* ↔ *виклик*; French *le marketing* ↔ *маркетинг*; French *courriel*/*e-mail* ↔ *електронна пошта*, *імейл* (colloquial). Each is judged in the target by its own usage ([into-fr.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-fr/) §4.2, [into-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-uk/) §4).

## 8. Register

Every non-standard voice in this pair is handled as the standard plus a **grammar delta** and a **lexicon delta** (general manual §3.7): read the source's deltas and what each is for, translate through the standard, then apply the target's own deltas that serve the same purpose at a similar density. The tables below are examples of deltas with matching functions in French and Ukrainian, not word-for-word dialect equivalents.

|  | French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- | --- |
| formal written | inversion, *nous*, *ne … pas*, passé simple in narrative | the literary norm, verbal nouns in official prose, *-но/-то* |
| colloquial | *on* for "we", *ne* dropped, elisions, dislocation, *ça* | dropped subjects, particles (*ну*, *же*, *от*), short forms, diminutives |
| slang | *verlan* (*meuf*, *relou*), *bagnole*, *boulot*, *mec* | youth slang (*крінж*, *вайб*), army slang, Russian-origin slang with stylistic weight |
| mixed variety | *français populaire*; Belgian, Swiss, Québec features | surzhyk |
| song | elisions, sung mute *e*, inversions | folk epithets, vocatives, diminutives, inversions |

**Surzhyk ↔ French.** Ukrainian → French: a surzhyk-speaking character is rendered in a non-local colloquial French (dropped *ne*, *ça*, popular vocabulary, a few forms readers hear as popular, such as *si j'aurais su* or *malgré que*), without a regional accent (no Marseille, no Québec), unless the mixing itself is the point ([from-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-uk/) §3.5). French → Ukrainian: a character speaking *français populaire* (*Si j'aurais su, j'aurais pas venu*) may become colloquial Ukrainian with a few surzhyk items if the social signal matches, or colloquial standard Ukrainian with non-standard grammar of its own if surzhyk would import a Ukrainian–Russian history the character does not have ([into-uk.md](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-uk/) §3.6). Constructed:

> *J'sais pas, moi, c'est pas mes oignons.* ✓ *Та я хтозна, то не моє діло.* (colloquial standard, *діло* colloquial) ✓ *Та я шо, знаю? То не моє дєло.* (with surzhyk *дєло*: a comic small-town voice) ✗ *Я не знаю, це не мої цибулі.* (literal idiom, normalised register)

## 9. Idioms and proverbs

| French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- |
| *Il pleut des cordes.* | *Ллє як з відра.* |
| *avoir d'autres chats à fouetter* | *мати інші клопоти* |
| *poser un lapin* | *не прийти на зустріч* (no idiom), *підвести* |
| *coûter les yeux de la tête* | *коштувати шалених грошей* |
| *ce ne sont pas mes oignons* | *не моє діло*, *не мій клопіт* |
| *quand les poules auront des dents* | *як рак свисне* |
| *faire d'une pierre deux coups* | *убити двох зайців* |
| *tourner autour du pot* | *ходити околясом* |
| *avoir le cafard* | *нудьгувати*, *хандрити*, *журитися* |
| *Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid.* | *Помалу, та вдало.* / *По зернятку — ворона наїдається.* |
| *Qui vivra verra.* | *Поживемо — побачимо.* |
| *Mieux vaut tard que jamais.* | *Краще пізно, ніж ніколи.* |
| *Quand on parle du loup …* | *Про вовка промовка …* |

## 10. Culture-bound items

- **Religion**: *l'Éternel* (Louis Segond's divine name) and *le Seigneur* ↔ *Господь*; *la Toussaint* ↔ *День усіх святих*; *Noël* ↔ *Різдво*; the Ukrainian *Свят-вечір*, *кутя*, *коляда*, *щедрівка* → French *la veillée de Noël*, *la koutia* (gloss), *le chant de Noël*, *le chant du Nouvel An* (*Щедрик* is a *chant de Nouvel An*, not a *chant de Noël*).
- **School**: *le collège*, *le lycée*, *le bac* ↔ *середня школа*, *старша школа*, *НМТ* (a different system: keep and explain).
- **Administration**: *la mairie* ↔ *мерія*, *міська рада*; *le préfet* ↔ *префект* (keep, explain); *l'oblast* ↔ *область* (French texts use *l'oblast* or *la région*).
- **Food**: *borchtch* (French spelling of *борщ*), *varenyky*; *le croissant*, *la baguette*, *le pot-au-feu* ↔ *круасан*, *багет*, *потофе* (gloss).

## 11. Names, numbers, dates, typography

### 11.1 French names in Ukrainian

By the 2019 orthography *(ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019)*: final silent letters are not written (*Дюма*, *Гюго*, *Рено*); stress is final; *ll*, *ill* after vowels and at the end → *й* (*макіяж*, *Війон*, *Шантії*), traditionally *-аль*, *-іль* in some names (*Версаль*, *Марсель*) (§ 125); *eu*, *œ* → *е*, after [j] → *є* (*Пастер*, *Рішельє*) (§ 132); *ou* → *у* (*Лувр*, *Тулуза*); *u* [y] → *ю* (*Гюго*, *Мюссе*); *gn* → *нь* (*Коньяк*, *Шампань*); nasal vowels → vowel + *н* (*Ліон* = *Lyon*, *Дантон*, *Сен-Жермен*). The apostrophe separates *j*-sounds: *П'єр*, *Мольєр* (after *л* no apostrophe). Decline names that fit Ukrainian declension (*Жан* → *Жана*, *Гюго* not declined).

### 11.2 Ukrainian names in French

French has two traditions: the official romanisation of Ukraine (*Volodymyr Zelensky*, *Kharkiv*, *Odesa*) and the older French transcription (*Chevtchenko* for *Шевченко*, *Khmelnytsky*, *Tchernihiv*, *Jytomyr*, with *ch* for *ш*, *tch* for *ч*, *j* for *ж*, *ou* for *у*). Current French media use the official forms for places (*Kyiv* increasingly alongside *Kiev*; *Kharkiv*; *Odessa* still common) and mixed forms for persons. Follow the house style; for living persons, their own Latin spelling.

### 11.3 Numbers, dates, typography

|  | French | Ukrainian |
| --- | --- | --- |
| decimal / thousands | *3,5*; *15 000* | *3,5*; *15 000* |
| percent | *25 %* | *25 %* |
| date | *le 6 juin 2026* | *6 червня 2026 року* |
| short date | *06/06/2026* | *06.06.2026* |
| time | *14 h 30* | *14:30*, *о пів на третю* (= 2.30) |
| centuries | *XXe siècle* | *XX століття* |
| quotation marks | « » with no-break spaces inside | « » without spaces |
| high marks | space before `; : ! ?` | no space |
| dialogue | « to open, dash for each turn | dash for each turn |
| capitals | *lundi*, *juin*, *français* | *понеділок*, *червень*, *французький* |
| polite *you* | *vous* (lowercase) | *Ви* (capitalised to one addressee in letters) |
| closing marks | `.` `,` inside or outside by logic | never `. , ; : —` before the closing » *(ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019, § 164)* |

The commonest typographic error between the two: carrying the French spaces before `?` `!` `:` `;` and inside « » into Ukrainian, or leaving them out of French.

## 12. Songs

French and Ukrainian song share a fondness for diminutives (*ma p'tite*, *la maisonnette* ↔ *хатинка*, *серденько*), apostrophes in address (*Ô ma belle* ↔ *Ой ти, дівчино*) and inverted epithets. They differ in prosody: French counts the sung mute *e* and stresses the group's end; Ukrainian has free lexical stress and no mute *e*. A singable translation recounts syllables and moves stresses.

Constructed examples (folk-style lines, not from any song):

| French | Ukrainian singable | note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *Ma mie, ma mie, ne pleure pas* (8 syllables) | *Мила моя, не плач, не плач* (8) | *ma mie* → *мила моя*; vocative and possessive |
| *Au jardin de mon père, les lilas sont fleuris* | *У батьковім саду бузок цвіте* | the possessive adjective *батьковий* is a folk-song form |
| *J'ai pas d'argent, j'ai pas d'maison* | *Нема грошей, нема хати* | dropped *ne* → colloquial *нема*; no subject |

**Folk songs with each other's motifs.** Both traditions have the guelder rose and the nightingale (*la viorne*, *l'obier* ↔ *калина*; *le rossignol* ↔ *соловей*), the well, the young soldier leaving: keep the epithets fixed (*червона калина* → *l'obier rouge*), and keep the nature–human parallelism that opens a Ukrainian folk stanza, even where French song would not use it. *Au clair de la lune* (public domain) shows French song's feminine moon; a Ukrainian singable version must make the moon masculine (*місяць*) or replace it (*при місячнім світлі*).

**Surzhyk and popular song.** A Ukrainian pop song in surzhyk goes into French as popular, comic, colloquial French with elisions and slang, not as standard French and not as a regional dialect; a French *chanson réaliste* in Parisian popular speech goes into Ukrainian as colloquial urban Ukrainian, with surzhyk only if the persona's social signal matches (§8).

## 13. Quality checks for French–Ukrainian

**French → Ukrainian**

1. Determiners' information moved into order, demonstratives or the partitive genitive.
2. Gender of things re-assigned; personifications checked.
3. Possessives: the owner decided (*його*, *її*, *свій*).
4. *Tu/vous* → *ти/ви*, with the family usage decided.
5. Tense → aspect; subjunctive → *щоб* + past or indicative after *що*.
6. *On*, *y*, *en* resolved; subjects dropped where Ukrainian drops them.
7. Vocative in address.
8. Russian-relay calques avoided in neutral prose (*мати місце*, *приймати участь*).
9. False friends (*journal*, *figure*, *régime*, *serviette*, *cadre*).
10. French spaces removed; « » without spaces; orthography 2019 for French names.

**Ukrainian → French**

1. Determiners supplied; partitive for partitive genitives.
2. Subjects supplied with the gender the verb gives; participles agree.
3. Aspect → tense; general-factual imperfective → passé composé.
4. *щоб* + past → subjunctive; *якби* → *si* + imparfait / plus-que-parfait by context.
5. *y* and *en* inserted where French needs them.
6. Order's information → clefts, dislocation, impersonals.
7. Particles and diminutives rendered by attitude.
8. Surzhyk and dialect handled by a stated decision.
9. French typography: spaces, « », lowercase.

## 14. Corpus evidence: French–Ukrainian Tatoeba

Tatoeba FR–UK (pairs.tsv, 34 310 pairs, CC BY 2.0 FR, authors in each row) is small, but it is a **direct** pair: no English in between. The French sentences below have the lower ids and were written first, unless noted. Many Ukrainian versions were made by a few contributors, so the evidence shows their choices, not the whole language's.

### 14.1 Shared categories that map directly

| id | French | Ukrainian | point |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `tatoeba:525127-524833` | *Je veux que tu restes avec moi.* | *Я хочу, щоб ти лишився зі мною.* | subjunctive → *щоб* + past form; *tu* → *ти*; the addressee's gender chosen (*лишився*) |
| `tatoeba:525129-524832` | *Je veux que vous restiez avec moi.* | *Я хочу, щоб ви залишилися зі мною.* | *vous* → *ви*; plural past form, gender-free |
| `tatoeba:182024-5162238` | *Si j'avais assez d'argent, je pourrais m'acheter ce livre.* | *Якби в мене було достатньо грошей, я б міг купити цю книгу.* | *si* + imparfait → *якби* + past; conditional → *б* + past; *avoir* → *у мене є* construction |
| `tatoeba:3299-490603` | *Personne ne me comprend.* | *Ніхто мене не розуміє.* | negative concord in both |
| `tatoeba:11305-510618` | *Personne n'habite dans cette maison.* | *У цьому будинку ніхто не живе.* | the place first (given), *ніхто* before the verb |
| `tatoeba:4218534-5142910` | *Je n'ai pas de clavier turc.* | *У мене немає турецької клавіатури.* | *de* after negation ↔ genitive of negation |
| `tatoeba:2532549-5718295` | *Je veux du lait et des biscuits !* | *Хочу молока та печива!* | partitive ↔ partitive genitive; subject dropped |
| `tatoeba:433404-502116` | *Donne-moi du lait aussi.* | *Дай мені ще й молока.* | partitive genitive with a perfective imperative |
| `tatoeba:478020-502670` | *Vous avez écrit ce livre ?* | *Ви написали цю книгу?* | intonation question in both; passé composé → perfective |
| `tatoeba:487949-1653358` | *Je suis heureuse d'accepter votre invitation.* | *Я рада прийняти ваше запрошення.* | the speaker's gender in both |

### 14.2 Where the two differ

| id | French | Ukrainian | point |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `tatoeba:7879-517309` | *C'est elle qui me l'a dit.* | *Це вона мені це сказала.* | cleft kept with *це*; *Мені це сказала саме вона* would use order |
| `tatoeba:1357972-5763848` | *C'est elle qui nourrit notre chien.* | *Саме вона годує нашого собаку.* | cleft → focus particle *саме* |
| `tatoeba:139580-503440` | *Il y a des mouches posées sur le mur.* | *На стіні сидять мухи.* | *il y a* + participle → a verb of position (*сидять*, "sit"), the place first |
| `tatoeba:139616-614155` | *Il y a une télévision dans cette pièce.* | *У цій кімнаті є телевізор.* | *il y a* → *є*, the place first, the new item last |
| `tatoeba:13443-480998` | *Il pleut encore.* | *Все ще дощить.* | impersonal *il* → subjectless verb |
| `tatoeba:491039-491037` | *Il pleut dehors.* | *На дворі дощить.* | *dehors* → *на дворі* (idiomatic "outside"); here the Ukrainian is the original (both by one contributor) |
| `tatoeba:3655161-5719352` | *Il est en train de peindre sa maison.* | *Він фарбує свій будинок.* | *être en train de* → imperfective present; *sa* → *свій* (the subject's own) |
| `tatoeba:181506-1582767` | *On m'a volé mon sac.* | *У мене поцупили сумку.* | *on* → 3rd plural; *mon* → dropped (the dative-like *у мене* gives the owner) |
| `tatoeba:3640-2804864` / `-2804867` | *Tu as raison.* | *Маєш рацію.* / *Ти правий.* | *avoir raison* → *мати рацію* (calque now standard) or *бути правим* (gender forced) |
| `tatoeba:14970-494157` | *Ça va ?* | *Як ся маєш?* | greeting formula ↔ formula |
| `tatoeba:9080-544768` | *Tu me manques beaucoup.* | *Я дуже сумую за тобою.* | the roles reversed: in French the missed one is the subject |
| `tatoeba:4169-3984009` | *J'attends depuis des heures.* | ✗ *Я чекав кілька годин.* | present of a continuing state read as past |
| `tatoeba:881803-1600264` | *Il faut que j'achète des provisions.* | *Я повинен купити продукти.* | impersonal necessity → personal *повинен* (masculine chosen) |
| `tatoeba:4594499-5752992` | *Il faut que tu manges.* | *Тобі треба поїсти.* | impersonal → dative + *треба*; perfective *поїсти* ("eat something") |

## 15. The Bible: Louis Segond and Kulish/Puluj

Two translations of the same Hebrew and Greek, both public domain (pairs-lsg-kulish.tsv, 28 433 verses), give the archaic deltas of both languages side by side:

| verse | Louis Segond 1910 | Kulish/Puluj 1905 | note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `GEN_1:3` | *Dieu dit: Que la lumière soit! Et la lumière fut.* | *І рече Бог: Настань, сьвіте! І настав сьвіт.* | *que* + subjunctive (third-person command) / imperative to the light; passé simple *fut* / perfective *настав* |
| `EXO_20:13` | *Tu ne tueras point.* | *Не вбивати меш.* | future of command with *point* / synthetic future in *-меш* |
| `PSA_23:1` | *L'Éternel est mon berger: je ne manquerai de rien.* | *Господь пастирь мій, не мати му недостатку.* | *l'Éternel* / *Господь*; possessive after the noun in Ukrainian |
| `MAT_5:3` | *Heureux les pauvres en esprit, car le royaume des cieux est à eux!* | *Блаженні вбогі духом, бо їх царство небесне.* | *heureux* / *блаженні* (the liturgical word); zero copula in both openings |
| `MAT_6:9` | *Notre Père qui es aux cieux! Que ton nom soit sanctifié;* | *Отче наш, що на небі! Нехай святить ся імя твоє.* | vocative *Отче*; *que* + subjunctive / *нехай* + present |
| `MAT_6:11` | *Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain quotidien;* | *Хлїб наш щоденний дай нам сьогоднї.* | French verb first, Ukrainian object first |
| `LUK_2:10` | *Ne craignez point; car je vous annonce une bonne nouvelle …* | *Не бійтесь, ось бо благовіщу вам радість велику …* | *bonne nouvelle* / the verb *благовіщу* |
| `1CO_13:4` | *La charité est patiente, elle est pleine de bonté; la charité n'est point envieuse; la charité ne se vante point …* | *Любов довго терпить, милосердує; любов не завидує …* | *charité* (Segond's word for *agapē*) / *любов*; French *être* + adjectives / Ukrainian verbs |
| `PRO_15:1` | *Une réponse douce calme la fureur, Mais une parole dure excite la colère.* | *Відказ лагідний гнїв палкий гасить, а зневажливе слово розбуджує лютість.* | Ukrainian inversion (adjectives after nouns, verb last) as the proverb's delta |
| `ECC_1:2` | *Vanité des vanités, dit l'Ecclésiaste, vanité des vanités, tout est vanité.* | *Марна марнота! говорить речник; марнота над марнотами, — все марне!* | *l'Ecclésiaste* / *речник* (a native word for the Preacher) |
| `RUT_1:16` | *Ne me presse pas de te laisser … Où tu iras j'irai …* | *не силуй мене покинути тебе …* | *tu* ↔ *ти* in both |

A translator of a French religious text into Ukrainian (or the reverse) uses the target tradition's fixed forms: *l'Éternel* / *le Seigneur* ↔ *Господь*; *Notre Père* ↔ *Отче наш*; *la charité* ↔ *любов*; *Heureux* ↔ *Блаженні*.

## 16. Terminology by domain

| domain | French | Ukrainian | note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IT | *courriel*, *e-mail* | *електронна пошта*, *імейл* |  |
| IT | *télécharger* | *завантажити* |  |
| IT | *application*, *appli* | *застосунок* |  |
| IT | *paramètres* | *налаштування* |  |
| IT | *mot de passe* | *пароль* |  |
| IT | *mot-dièse*, *hashtag* | *хештег* / *гештег* |  |
| law | *loi*, *code*, *décret*, *arrêté* | *закон*, *кодекс*, *указ* / *постанова*, *наказ* | the institutions differ; match by function |
| law | *personne morale*, *personne physique* | *юридична особа*, *фізична особа* | civil law in both: direct equivalents |
| law | *notaire*, *acte notarié* | *нотаріус*, *нотаріальний акт* |  |
| law | *prescription* (limitation) | *позовна давність* | false friend with *рецепт* (medical prescription) |
| law | *entrer en vigueur* | *набирати чинності* |  |
| administration | *mairie*, *conseil municipal* | *міська рада*, *мерія* |  |
| administration | *préfecture* | *префектура* (kept), *обласна державна адміністрація* (functional analogue, imperfect) |  |
| medicine | *ordonnance* | *рецепт* |  |
| medicine | *médecin traitant* | *сімейний лікар* |  |
| medicine | *effets indésirables* | *побічні реакції* |  |
| medicine | *notice* | *інструкція для медичного застосування* |  |
| medicine | *AVC* | *інсульт* |  |
| education | *collège*, *lycée*, *baccalauréat* | *базова школа*, *ліцей* / *старша школа*, *НМТ* (functional analogue) | systems differ: keep and explain |
| EU | *État membre*, *règlement*, *directive* | *держава-член*, *регламент*, *директива* |  |

## 17. How Mova handles it

**Today.** Nothing in this pair is implemented. Mova reads French through its English parser after tag mapping (LAS 87.00 own tags on UD French GSD dev, 2026-10-22) and does not read Ukrainian; the French–Ukrainian corpora of §0 are its first data for this pair. [tools/translate](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/tools/translate/) links languages through a language-free meta-world, and its design is what a direct French–Ukrainian link would use: each language read into the meta-world by its own reader, written out by the other's standard encoder and an author delta. Translating through the meta-world rather than through English is Mova's form of §0's advice: the meta-world would need to keep gender, formality and aspect as features (`--feats on` already carries pronoun person and number as an option), or they would be lost as in an English relay.

**Planned and being built.** The **French and Ukrainian Nightingales** 🐦 (tools/nightingale, being built; one per language, under the Eel, each with its own Sol consultant, building naturalness models from that language's Wikipedia on the CPU) would judge each target side. The Eel's rounds `tr-fr-uk` and `tr-uk-fr` (being built) would start from the Tatoeba FR–UK pairs and the Segond–Kulish verses of §0.

**Where Mova stops.** No French–Ukrainian translation or measurement of translation quality; the corpora are small (Tatoeba) or of one genre and period (the Bibles), and their direction of translation is unknown.

## Sources

*(ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019)* (§§ 125, 132, 164 and feminitives § 32.4); *(smerechynskyi-1932)*; the [French manual](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/); the one-sided manuals and their sources. *Au clair de la lune*: traditional, public domain.

*The Elamur team*

- [← previous English and Ukrainian: the pair manual](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-uk/)
- [↑ back to languages/translation/pairs/](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/)