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# 22. Phrases

**On this page**

1. [1. The noun phrase: order and agreement](#1-the-noun-phrase-order-and-agreement)
2. [2. Determiners, possessives and the possessive adjective](#2-determiners-possessives-and-the-possessive-adjective)
3. [3. Complements and modifiers after the noun](#3-complements-and-modifiers-after-the-noun)
4. [4. Numeral and quantifier phrases](#4-numeral-and-quantifier-phrases)
5. [5. Prepositional phrases and case government](#5-prepositional-phrases-and-case-government)
6. [6. Adjective phrases](#6-adjective-phrases)
7. [7. Comparison](#7-comparison)
8. [8. Adverb phrases](#8-adverb-phrases)
9. [9. Varieties and styles as deltas](#9-varieties-and-styles-as-deltas)
10. [10. Quick reference: phrases in UD](#10-quick-reference-phrases-in-ud)
11. [11. How Mova handles it](#11-how-mova-handles-it)
12. [12. Sources](#12-sources)

A Ukrainian phrase is built round a head that fixes the case, gender and number of its dependents. In the **noun phrase** the agreeing words — adjectives, determiners, possessives, ordinal and the lower cardinal numerals — come before the noun and copy its gender, number and case; the non-agreeing ones — genitives, prepositional phrases, clauses — come after it: *мій старий друг із дитинства* (*mii staryi druh iz dytynstva*) 'my old friend from childhood'. In the **prepositional phrase** the preposition chooses the case: *у місті* 'in the town' (locative), *у місто* 'into the town' (accusative). **Numeral phrases** split the language in two: *два, три, чотири* behave like adjectives and take a nominative plural noun (*три книжки* 'three books'), while *п'ять* and above behave like nouns in the nominative and accusative and take a genitive plural (*п'ять книжок* 'five books') but agree like adjectives in the other cases (*з п'ятьма книжками* 'with five books'). The indefinite quantifiers (*багато*, *кілька*, *мало*) take the genitive like *п'ять*. The **adjective phrase** has complements in the case the adjective governs (*гідний поваги* 'worthy of respect'), and comparison uses *за* + accusative, *від* + genitive or *ніж* + a nominative (*старший за брата*, *старший від брата*, *старший, ніж брат* 'older than the brother').

Contents

1. [The noun phrase: order and agreement](#1-the-noun-phrase-order-and-agreement)
2. [Determiners, possessives and the possessive adjective](#2-determiners-possessives-and-the-possessive-adjective)
3. [Complements and modifiers after the noun](#3-complements-and-modifiers-after-the-noun)
4. [Numeral and quantifier phrases](#4-numeral-and-quantifier-phrases)
5. [Prepositional phrases and case government](#5-prepositional-phrases-and-case-government)
6. [Adjective phrases](#6-adjective-phrases)
7. [Comparison](#7-comparison)
8. [Adverb phrases](#8-adverb-phrases)
9. [Varieties and styles as deltas](#9-varieties-and-styles-as-deltas)
10. [Quick reference: phrases in UD](#10-quick-reference-phrases-in-ud)
11. [How Mova handles it](#11-how-mova-handles-it)
12. [Sources](#12-sources)

Related chapters: noun and adjective declension in [11. Nouns](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/11-nouns/) and [15. Adjectives and adverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/15-adjectives-adverbs/); numerals and pronouns in [12. Pronouns, determiners and numerals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/12-pronouns-determiners-numerals/); the order counts in [20. Syntax overview](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/20-syntax-overview/) § 5; agreement of the verb with numeral subjects in [21. Clause structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/21-clause-structure/) § 2.4; verb government in [23. Complementation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/23-complementation/); relative clauses in [25. Relative clauses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/25-relative-clauses/).

Conventions as in chapter 20. Counts: UD 2.18 (IU, counts only; ParlaMint, quoted by `sent_id`), all splits, `awk`, 2026-11-06.

---

## 1. The noun phrase: order and agreement

### 1.1 The template

| slot | before the noun |  | noun | after the noun |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | quantifier / numeral | determiner, possessive | adjectives | **head** | genitive, PP, apposition, participle phrase, relative clause |
| example | *усі ці* | *мої* | *старі добрі* | **друзі** | *з дитинства, яких я давно не бачив* |
| gloss | 'all these' | 'my' | 'old good' | 'friends' | 'from childhood, whom I have not seen for long' |

The counts of chapter 20 § 5 show how firm this is: in both treebanks 95% of adjectives, 97% of determiners and 96–100% of governing numerals and quantifiers precede the noun, and 99% of genitive modifiers and all relative clauses follow it (UD 2.18, 2026-11-06). Several adjectives are ordered from the more subjective to the more classifying, as in English: *гарна стара дерев'яна хата* 'a pretty old wooden house'; a relative adjective that forms a term with the noun stands next to it (*нова залізнична станція* 'a new railway station').

### 1.2 Agreement inside the phrase

Every agreeing word copies the noun's **case** and **number**, and in the singular its **gender**; in the accusative it also copies **animacy** (masculine animate singulars and all animate plurals have an accusative equal to the genitive):

|  | masculine inanimate | masculine animate | feminine | neuter | plural animate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nom | *мій новий стіл* | *мій новий учитель* | *моя нова книжка* | *моє нове вікно* | *мої нові учні* |
| Acc | *мій новий стіл* (= Nom) | *мого нового вчителя* (= Gen) | *мою нову книжку* | *моє нове вікно* (= Nom) | *моїх нових учнів* (= Gen) |
| Gen | *мого нового стола* | *мого нового вчителя* | *моєї нової книжки* | *мого нового вікна* | *моїх нових учнів* |
| Ins | *моїм новим столом* | *моїм новим учителем* | *моєю новою книжкою* | *моїм новим вікном* | *моїми новими учнями* |

### 1.3 Mixed agreement

- **Masculine nouns of the *-а/-я* declension** (*суддя* 'judge', *староста* 'elder', *Микола*) take masculine agreement: *наш суддя*, *старий Микола*; nouns of common gender (*сирота* 'orphan', *нероба* 'idler') agree with the person's sex: *бідний сирота* / *бідна сирота*.
- **Masculine titles applied to women.** With a masculine noun naming a woman (*лікар*, *директор*, *професор*), the adjective is masculine (*наш новий директор*), the past verb follows the sex (*Директор сказала*), and the colloquial feminine adjective (*наша директор*) is non-standard. Current usage prefers the feminine noun itself: *директорка*, *лікарка*, *професорка*, *авторка*, which the 2019 orthography forms with the suffixes *-к-*, *-иц-(я)*, *-ин-(я)*, *-ес-* (§ 32.4), and whose coverage in dictionaries and in the GRAC corpus is documented by Synchak and Starko (2022, `synchak-2022-feminine-dictionaries`), who compiled a web dictionary of feminine personal nouns from corpus data. Here usage leads: the feminitives were in wide use before they were codified, and they continue to grow (chapter 37).
- **The polite *Ви*** takes a plural adjective (*Ви такі добрі*), a noun predicate keeps its own number (chapter 21 § 2).
- **Pluralia tantum** (*двері* 'door', *ножиці* 'scissors', *гроші* 'money') take plural agreement and collective numerals (§ 4.3).

### 1.4 Apposition

A noun in apposition agrees in case with its head: *місто Київ*, *у місті Києві* (both locative), *з річкою Дніпром*; with names of newspapers, ships, firms in quotation marks the name stays in the nominative: *у газеті «День»* 'in the newspaper *Den*'. UD marks the quoted titles as `flat:title` (1 070 in IU). The appositive name of a town also commonly stays uninflected in speech and journalism (*у місті Київ*), which the norm does not accept.

## 2. Determiners, possessives and the possessive adjective

### 2.1 Determiners

Ukrainian has no articles; definiteness is expressed by order (chapter 20 § 7), by demonstratives (*цей* 'this', *той* 'that', *такий* 'such'), by possessives and by indefinites (*якийсь* 'some', *один* 'a certain', *будь-який* 'any', *кожен/кожний* 'each', *всякий*, *жоден* 'no'). UD tags them `DET` and attaches them as `det` (3 203 in IU, 3 183 in ParlaMint); 97% precede the noun.

### 2.2 Possessives

The possessive pronouns *мій, твій, свій, наш, ваш*, and *його, її, їхній/їх* agree with the noun (except the invariable *його*, *її*, *їх*). The reflexive *свій* refers to the subject of its clause: *Він узяв свою книжку* 'He took his (own) book', against *Він узяв його книжку* 'He took his (someone else's) book' (chapter 35).

### 2.3 The possessive adjective

Ukrainian forms **possessive adjectives** from nouns naming persons and animals: *батьків* 'father's', *мамин* 'mother's', *сестрин* 'sister's', *Шевченків* 'Shevchenko's', *Іванові діти* 'Ivan's children'. Smerechynskyi (1932, ch. VIII) argued that the possessive genitive is "not proper to the folk language" in place of these adjectives, and recommended *батькова хата* over *хата батька*, *Шевченкові твори* over *твори Шевченка*, and adjectives also for the subjective and objective genitive (*материна любов* 'mother's love'). The modern standard has both: the possessive adjective is the natural choice for a single person in everyday and literary style (*мамина сукня*, *братова машина*), the genitive for persons with modifiers or full names, for institutions and in official style (*твори Тараса Шевченка*, *рішення Кабінету Міністрів*). The adjective is impossible when the possessor has its own modifiers (*хата мого старого батька*, not **мого старого батькова хата*).

## 3. Complements and modifiers after the noun

| type | example | gloss | UD |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| genitive of possession, part, quality | *хата батька*, *частина міста*, *людина великої душі* | 'father's house', 'part of the town', 'a person of great soul' | `nmod` |
| genitive of the object or subject of a verbal noun | *читання книжки*, *прихід весни* | 'the reading of a book', 'the coming of spring' | `nmod` |
| prepositional phrase | *лист від брата*, *хата з садком*, *питання про мову* | 'a letter from the brother', 'a house with a garden', 'a question about language' | `nmod` |
| infinitive | *бажання вчитися* 'the wish to study' |  | `acl` |
| participle phrase | *хата, збудована дідом* 'a house built by grandfather' |  | `acl` |
| relative clause | *хата, яку збудував дід* |  | `acl:relcl` (chapter 25) |

The genitive is by far the commonest noun modifier: `nmod` in the genitive accounts for 7 573 of 9 516 `nmod` in IU (80%) and 8 790 of 11 030 in ParlaMint (80%) (2026-11-06). **Genitive chains** are characteristic of official style: *забезпечення виконання рішення Кабінету Міністрів України* 'ensuring the implementation of the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine' — five nouns, four genitives. Smerechynskyi (ch. XVIII, XXI) and the style manuals since have criticised the stacking of verbal nouns in *-ння* as a feature of the bureaucratic style and recommended finite verbs (*щоб виконати рішення*); the stacking remains normal in legal and parliamentary language.

The **partitive genitive** after nouns of measure: *склянка води* 'a glass of water', *кілограм цукру* 'a kilo of sugar', *шматок хліба* 'a piece of bread'. The genitive of time is adverbial, not a noun modifier: *минулої осені* 'last autumn', *того ж дня* 'that same day' (Smerechynskyi ch. VI); in a dependency tree it is an `obl` of the verb.

## 4. Numeral and quantifier phrases

### 4.1 The four classes of cardinals

| numeral | in the Nom/Acc | noun | adjective | in the oblique cases |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *один, одна, одне* | agrees like an adjective | singular, same case | same case | agrees |
| *два/дві, три, чотири, обидва/обидві* | agree like adjectives | **nominative plural** | nominative (also genitive) plural | agree |
| *п'ять* … *двадцять*, *тридцять* …, *сто*, *двісті* … | govern like nouns | **genitive plural** | genitive plural | agree like adjectives: *п'ятьох книжок*, *п'ятьма книжками* |
| *тисяча*, *мільйон*, *мільярд* | are nouns | genitive plural in all cases | genitive plural | decline as nouns: *з тисячею книжок* |

|  | 'two books' | 'five books' |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Nom | *дві книжки* | *п'ять книжок* |
| Gen | *двох книжок* | *п'яти (п'ятьох) книжок* |
| Dat | *двом книжкам* | *п'яти (п'ятьом) книжкам* |
| Acc | *дві книжки* (inanimate) / *двох студентів* (animate) | *п'ять книжок* / *п'ятьох студентів* or *п'ять студентів* |
| Ins | *двома книжками* | *п'ятьма (п'ятьома) книжками* |
| Loc | *на двох книжках* | *на п'яти (п'ятьох) книжках* |

The 2019 orthography gives the paradigms, with the double forms of the oblique cases (*п'ятдесяти* / *п'ятдесятьох*, *п'ятдесятьма* / *п'ятдесятьома*) and the accusative *п'ятдесят* or *п'ятдесятьох* (§ 105). A compound numeral follows its **last** element: *двадцять один студент* (singular), *двадцять два студенти*, *двадцять п'ять студентів*; Smerechynskyi (1932, ch. XI.10) notes that after a compound ending in *один* the noun is singular (*двадцять один рік*), not the genitive plural found in Galician usage (*двадцять один років*), and that all parts of a compound numeral decline (*з чотирьохсот сімдесяти восьми тисяч*, § 105.6).

### 4.2 After *два, три, чотири*

The noun after *два, три, чотири* is in the nominative plural; historically it was the dual, which survives in a few forms. Smerechynskyi (ch. XI.10) gives as the norm of his time (the 1930 orthography) the dual forms *дві руці*, *дві нозі*, *дві вікні* with the adjective in the nominative plural, and cites the folk songs *два персники золотії, два жупани голубії*. The modern standard writes the plural (*дві руки*, *два вікна*); *дві руці*, *очі* (an old dual, now a plural) and the dual-based stress of some nouns after these numerals are the relics.

The adjective between *два/три/чотири* and the noun is in the nominative plural (*два нові будинки*, *три великі хати*); the genitive plural (*два нових будинки*) also occurs. In the treebanks (adjectives depending on a nominative or accusative noun with a `nummod` *два, три, чотири, обидва*; 2026-11-06) the nominative/accusative form is the majority, 20 against 8 in IU and 9 against 3 in ParlaMint, and the genitive concentrates on masculine nouns: *Тому ми сповідуємо два різних світогляди…* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u15.p3.lang1.s2) 'So we profess two different worldviews…'.

### 4.3 Collective numerals

*Двоє, троє, четверо, п'ятеро* … *десятеро*, *обоє* count persons of mixed or male sex, the young of animals and pluralia tantum, with the genitive plural: *двоє дітей* 'two children', *троє друзів*, *четверо кошенят* 'four kittens', *двоє дверей* 'two doors', *троє саней*. They are frequent in speech; in the treebanks *двоє* occurs 21 times, *троє* 13, *обоє* 8, *четверо* 5 (both treebanks, 2026-11-06). Smerechynskyi (ch. XI.1–2) also records the folk type *п'ятеро чоловіка*, *троє хліба*, with a collective numeral and a genitive singular, now dialectal.

### 4.4 Indefinite quantifiers

*Багато*, *мало*, *небагато*, *чимало*, *кілька*, *декілька*, *скільки*, *стільки*, *трохи*, *більшість*, *меншість* take the genitive — plural for countables, singular for masses: *багато людей* 'many people', *багато води* 'much water', *кілька днів* 'a few days', *трохи хліба* 'a little bread'. In the oblique cases *кілька*, *декілька*, *скільки*, *стільки* decline (*кількох днів*, *кільком людям*), *багато* has forms *багатьох*, *багатьом*, *багатьма*; *мало*, *чимало*, *трохи* do not.

The verb with a quantifier subject is singular or plural (chapter 21 § 2.4). Janda and Palii (2024, `janda-2024-bahato-many`) analysed attestations of *багато* + genitive plural as subject drawn from GRAC (over 1.8 billion words, texts written 1816–2023) by four searches stratified by verb number and word order and found:

- singular in 69.1%, plural in 30.9% overall;
- a change in progress: the plural has risen since about the 1950s and overtaken the singular in the current decade;
- subject-before-verb order and animate nouns favour the plural (*Багато людей прийшли*), verb-before-subject and inanimate nouns the singular (*Прийшло багато людей*, *Минуло багато років*);
- individual verbs have their own preferences, and a few micro-constructions that prefer the singular reduce the individuation of the humans in them (death, disease, subordination to another event);
- they relate the variation to the construal of a plural as a homogeneous mass (singular) or a multiplicity of individuals (plural), and note that the rising plural contrasts with Russian, where no comparable change was found.

The treebanks agree in direction (chapter 21 § 2.4): ParlaMint *Про це сьогодні говорили багато моїх колег* (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u151.p2.lang1.s6) 'Many of my colleagues spoke about this today' has the plural with the verb first and an animate noun.

### 4.5 The numeral phrase in UD

In UD Ukrainian the **noun is the head** of a numeral phrase. An agreeing numeral is `nummod`; a numeral that governs the genitive (in the nominative and accusative of *п'ять* and up, and digits read that way) is `nummod:gov`; quantifiers are `det:numgov` (governing) or `det:nummod` (agreeing, in the oblique cases). The counts (dependent class, case of the numeral → case and number of the noun; UD 2.18, 2026-11-06; the most frequent patterns):

| relation | numeral | numeral case → noun | IU | ParlaMint |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `nummod:gov` | digits | Acc → Gen.Plur | 142 | 112 |
| `nummod:gov` | digits | Nom → Gen.Plur | 96 | 88 |
| `nummod:gov` | words ≥ 5 | Acc / Gen / Nom → Gen.Plur | 68 / 66 / 28 | 27 / 49 / 22 |
| `nummod` | *два, три, чотири* | Nom → Nom.Plur | 37 | 35 |
| `nummod` | *два, три, чотири* | Acc → Acc.Plur | 70 | 35 |
| `nummod` | *два, три, чотири* | Gen → Gen.Plur | 46 | 30 |
| `nummod` | *два, три, чотири* | Ins → Ins.Plur | 15 | 4 |
| `nummod` | words ≥ 5 | Gen → Gen.Plur | 38 | 10 |
| `nummod` | *один* | Nom → Nom.Sing / Acc → Acc.Sing | 22 / 24 | 32 / 49 |
| `det:numgov` | *кілька* | Acc → Gen.Plur | 70 | 10 |
| `det:numgov` | *багато* | Nom / Acc → Gen.Plur | 22 / 21 | 15 / 10 |

The split is clean: *два, три, чотири* are never `nummod:gov` (they agree in every case), and the higher numerals are `nummod:gov` in the nominative and accusative and `nummod` in the oblique cases, where they agree. The `nummod:gov` with a noun tagged singular (46 in IU with digits) are mostly the sign *%* (27, read *відсотка* or *відсотків*) and abbreviated units (*грн*, *км*, *га*), plus decimals with the genitive singular (*1,5 відсотка*).

### 4.6 Approximation and fractions

Approximation is expressed by inversion (*років п'ять* 'about five years': the noun before the numeral; Smerechynskyi ch. XI.12 cites *з чайок двісті* from the dumas), by *близько*, *приблизно*, *до* + genitive (*близько п'яти років*, *до сотні людей*), and by *з* + accusative (*з десяток* 'about ten'). Fractions take the genitive singular: *пів години* 'half an hour', *півтора року* 'a year and a half', *дві третіх відсотка*, *2,5 відсотка* (read *дві цілих п'ять десятих відсотка*).

## 5. Prepositional phrases and case government

### 5.1 The prepositions and their cases

Each preposition takes one, two or three cases. The commonest in the treebanks, by preposition and case of its noun (UD 2.18, 2026-11-06; IU / ParlaMint):

| preposition | case | meaning | IU | ParlaMint |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *у/в* | Loc | 'in' (place) | 2 149 | 1 481 |
| *у/в* | Acc | 'into', 'on (a day)' | 574 | 291 |
| *у/в* | Gen | 'at somebody's', possession (*у мене*) | 214 | 235 |
| *на* | Acc | 'onto', 'for (time, purpose)' | 990 | 835 |
| *на* | Loc | 'on' (place) | 763 | 421 |
| *до* | Gen | 'to', 'until', 'before' | 859 | 880 |
| *з/із/зі* | Gen | 'from', 'out of', 'since' | 793 | 496 |
| *з/із/зі* | Ins | 'with' | 778 | 462 |
| *від* | Gen | 'from (a person)', 'than' | 353 | 227 |
| *про* | Acc | 'about' | 351 | 634 |
| *для* | Gen | 'for' | 348 | 322 |
| *за* | Acc | 'for, in favour of', 'than', 'within (time)' | 261 | 365 |
| *за* | Ins | 'behind', 'according to', 'after (following)' | 241 | 177 |
| *по* | Loc | 'along, over', 'after (time)' | 137 | 200 |
| *щодо* | Gen | 'concerning' | — | 238 |
| *після* | Gen | 'after' | 103 | 72 |
| *через* | Acc | 'through', 'because of' | 99 | — |
| *під* | Acc / Ins | 'under (motion / place)' | 87 / 79 | — |
| *між* | Ins | 'between' | 68 | — |
| *при* | Loc | 'at, in the presence of', 'under (a regime)' | — | 74 |
| *без* | Gen | 'without' | 88 | — |

(— : under 60 in that treebank. The counts sum the lowercase and capitalised forms where both are frequent; *у/в* and *з/із* sum the variants.)

ParlaMint's *щодо* (238) and *про* (634) show the parliamentary topic of "matters concerning…"; IU's *через*, *під*, *між* the spatial language of fiction.

### 5.2 Meaning by case

| preposition | case 1 | case 2 | case 3 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *у/в* | Loc: *у місті* 'in the town' | Acc: *у місто* 'into the town'; *у понеділок* 'on Monday' | Gen: *у брата* 'at the brother's'; *у мене є* |
| *на* | Loc: *на столі* 'on the table' | Acc: *на стіл* 'onto the table'; *на тиждень* 'for a week' | — |
| *з* | Gen: *з міста* 'from the town' | Ins: *з братом* 'with the brother' | Acc (approximation): *з тиждень* 'about a week' |
| *за* | Acc: *за тиждень* 'within a week'; *голосувати за* 'vote for'; *старший за брата* 'older than' | Ins: *за хатою* 'behind the house'; *за законом* 'according to the law' | Gen: *за Шевченка* 'in Shevchenko's time' (Smerechynskyi ch. VI.1) |
| *під* | Acc: *під стіл* 'under the table (motion)'; *під вечір* 'towards evening' | Ins: *під столом* 'under the table' | — |
| *по* | Loc: *по дорозі* 'along the road'; *по обіді* 'after lunch' | Acc: *по воду* 'to fetch water' (Smerechynskyi ch. VII.3) | Dat (colloquial, contested): *по телевізору* 'on TV' |

The contrast **location (Loc) / direction (Acc)** after *у/в*, *на* and **location (Ins) / direction (Acc)** after *під*, *над*, *за*, *між*, *перед* is regular.

### 5.3 *У* or *в*: euphony in practice

The choice between *у* and *в* (and the conjunctions *і*/*й*, chapter 24) is phonetic: the 2019 orthography (§ 23) prescribes *у* between consonants and at the start of a sentence before a consonant, *в* between vowels and after a vowel before most consonants, with exceptions before *в, ф* and clusters such as *льв, св, тв*; it adds that deviations occur "because of the demands of rhythm or the author's preferences". The treebanks show how far usage follows the rule (the preposition `case` *у* or *в*; the previous and the next word's edge letters; UD 2.18, 2026-11-06):

| context | rule | IU: *у* / *в* | share following the rule | ParlaMint: *у* / *в* | share following |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| consonant _ consonant | *у* | 533 / 105 | 84% | 232 / 186 | 55% |
| vowel _ consonant | *в* (mostly) | 585 / 854 | 59% | 391 / 738 | 65% |
| vowel _ vowel | *в* | 10 / 226 | 96% | 4 / 213 | 98% |
| consonant _ vowel | *в* | 15 / 67 | 82% | 2 / 67 | 97% |

The rule is followed where a violation would create a vowel cluster (*в* between vowels: 96–98%); the consonant-cluster side (*у* between consonants) is kept in edited texts and much less in transcripts, where *в* is the default spelling of the preposition. The vowel-before-consonant position, where the rule asks for *в*, has *у* in 35–41% of cases in both treebanks: the norm is ahead of usage here, or the rule is a preference rather than a constraint.

### 5.4 Compound prepositions and contested government

Compound prepositions are frequent in official style: *відповідно до* + Gen 'in accordance with', *згідно з* + Ins 'according to', *у зв'язку з* + Ins 'in connection with', *на підставі* + Gen 'on the basis of', *з метою* + Gen 'with the aim of', *у разі* + Gen 'in case of', *незважаючи на* + Acc 'despite', *щодо* + Gen 'regarding'. Smerechynskyi (ch. VII.13) discussed their stylistic weight. Some governments are contested or variable:

| pattern | standard | variants and their status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 'according to' | *згідно з законом* (Ins) | *згідно закону* (Gen) is widespread and criticised as a calque; *відповідно до закону*, *за законом* are the recommended alternatives |
| 'on (a topic)' | *з питання*, *щодо питання*, *у справі* | *по питанню* (Dat) is criticised as a Russianism; frequent in speech and surzhyk |
| 'on (TV, radio, phone)' | *по телевізору*, *по радіо* (Dat/Loc) are common; *на телебаченні*, *телефоном* are the purist recommendations | both in use |
| 'than' | *за* + Acc, *від* + Gen, *ніж* + Nom (§ 7) | — |
| 'to miss someone' | *сумувати за ким* (Ins) | *скучати по кому* (Loc/Dat) is regional and surzhyk |

The variants are measured, not legislated, in this manual: chapter 37 places them on the register scale.

## 6. Adjective phrases

An adjective takes complements in the case or preposition it governs, and degree modifiers before it:

| government | examples | gloss |
| --- | --- | --- |
| genitive | *гідний поваги*, *повний води*, *вартий уваги*, *позбавлений права* | 'worthy of respect', 'full of water', 'worth attention', 'deprived of the right' |
| dative | *вдячний батькам*, *відданий справі*, *властивий мові*, *потрібний людям* | 'grateful to parents', 'devoted to the cause', 'proper to the language', 'needed by people' |
| instrumental | *задоволений роботою*, *багатий талантами*, *відомий своїми творами* | 'satisfied with the work', 'rich in talents', 'known for his works' |
| preposition | *схожий на батька*, *здатний на подвиг*, *готовий до бою*, *багатий на ліс*, *сердитий на когось*, *вдячний за допомогу*, *вільний від податків* | 'similar to his father', 'capable of a feat', 'ready for battle', 'rich in forest', 'angry with someone', 'grateful for help', 'free from taxes' |
| infinitive | *здатний працювати*, *готовий допомогти*, *радий бачити* | 'able to work', 'ready to help', 'glad to see' |

Degree adverbs precede: *дуже гарний* 'very beautiful', *надто довгий* 'too long', *зовсім новий* 'quite new', *трохи втомлений* 'a little tired', *вкрай важливий* 'extremely important'. An adjective phrase with a complement after the noun is set off by commas: *людина, гідна поваги*. In UD the complement is `obl` (with a preposition or a case) or `xcomp` (infinitive) of the adjective; the degree adverb is `advmod` (86% of `advmod` precede their head in IU, 84% in ParlaMint).

## 7. Comparison

### 7.1 The forms

The 2019 orthography (§ 104) gives the synthetic comparative in *-іш-* or *-ш-* (*нов-іш-ий* 'newer', *дешев-ш-ий* 'cheaper', *солод-ш-ий*) and the analytic with *більш*, *менш* ("less often": *більш вдалий*), the superlative with *най-* (*найбільший*, *найкраща*) or *найбільш*, *найменш* (again "less often"), and the intensified superlative with *що-*, *як-* written together: *щонайсильніший*, *якнайбільший*, *якнайшвидше* 'as fast as possible'. The suppletive forms: *добрий* → *кращий* / *ліпший*, *поганий* → *гірший*, *великий* → *більший*, *малий* → *менший*. A double comparative, *більш вищий*, is outside the standard.

### 7.2 The standard of comparison

| pattern | example | note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *за* + Acc | *Він старший за брата.* | standard, neutral |
| *від* + Gen | *Він старший від брата.* | standard, neutral; western and literary |
| *ніж* + clause or Nom | *Він старший, ніж брат.* *Краще пізно, ніж ніколи.* | standard; obligatory when the standard is not a noun phrase (*Він старший, ніж здається*) |
| *як* + Nom | *Він старший, як брат.* | colloquial and western |
| *проти* + Gen, *порівняно з* + Ins | *Цього року врожай більший проти минулого.* | contrastive, official |
| genitive (bare) | *старший брата* | not standard (a Russian pattern); surzhyk |

The superlative standard: *найкращий з усіх*, *найкращий серед учнів*, *найкращий у класі*.

### 7.3 Comparison of equality

*такий самий, як*; *такий же, як*; *так само, як*; *такий … як*: *Він такий самий високий, як брат* 'He is just as tall as his brother'. Correlative pairs of this type (*так — як*, *як — так*) are in Smerechynskyi ch. XXV and chapter 24.

## 8. Adverb phrases

Adverbs take degree modifiers (*дуже швидко*, *надто пізно*), comparatives (*швидше*, *більш вдало*), and some take complements: *незалежно від погоди* 'regardless of the weather', *відповідно до закону* (the compound preposition grows from such adverbs), *близько до хати*. Adverbs of quantity are the quantifiers of § 4.4 (*багато*, *мало*) when they have a genitive; without one they modify verbs (*Він багато працює* 'He works a lot').

## 9. Varieties and styles as deltas

| variety or style | grammar delta | lexicon delta | orthography / pronunciation delta |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| colloquial standard | uninflected appositive names (*у місті Київ*); masculine title with feminine agreement (*наша директор*); *як* in comparison; *по* + Dat (*по телевізору*); fewer possessive adjectives in towns, more in villages | feminitives (*директорка*) | *у/в* by ear; *в* default in transcripts |
| official, legal | genitive chains; verbal nouns; compound prepositions (*відповідно до*, *згідно з*, *у разі*); *щодо* + Gen; the genitive instead of the possessive adjective | terms | — |
| folk song and folk-poetic | postposed adjectives (*жупани голубії*); long (uncontracted) adjective endings *-ії, -ая, -оє* (*золотії*, *такая*); dual relics after numerals (*дві руці*); approximation by inversion (*років п'ять*); possessive adjectives | diminutives (*персники*, *коники*) | metre-driven stress |
| Galician and western | *від* + Gen in comparison; *як* + Nom; after *двадцять один* a genitive plural noun (*двадцять один років*; Smerechynskyi ch. XI.10, non-standard) | Polish-era loans | — |
| surzhyk | Russian government with Ukrainian forms: *по питанню*, *згідно чого*, *скучати по*, bare genitive in comparison (*старше брата*); numerals partly Russian (*двадцять* shared, *сорок* shared, *пятьдесят*) | Russian nouns with Ukrainian endings | Russian vowels |

## 10. Quick reference: phrases in UD

| construction | example | UD analysis |
| --- | --- | --- |
| adjective + noun | *стара хата* | `amod(хата, стара)` |
| demonstrative, possessive | *ця моя хата* | `det(хата, ця)`, `det(хата, моя)` |
| possessive adjective | *батькова хата* | `amod(хата, батькова)` (`Poss=Yes`) |
| genitive modifier | *хата батька* | `nmod(хата, батька)` `Case=Gen` |
| apposition | *місто Київ* | `appos` or `flat` (title in quotes: `flat:title`) |
| *два, три, чотири* | *три книжки* | `nummod(книжки, три)` |
| *п'ять* + Gen | *п'ять книжок* | `nummod:gov(книжок, п'ять)` |
| oblique case | *з п'ятьма книжками* | `nummod(книжками, п'ятьма)` |
| quantifier | *багато людей* | `det:numgov(людей, багато)` |
| quantifier oblique | *багатьом людям* | `det:nummod(людям, багатьом)` |
| preposition | *у місті* | `case(місті, у)` |
| compound preposition | *відповідно до закону* | `case(закону, відповідно)`, `fixed(відповідно, до)` |
| adjective complement | *гідний поваги* | `obl(гідний, поваги)` |
| comparison | *старший за брата* | `obl(старший, брата)`, `case(брата, за)` |
| *ніж*-clause | *старший, ніж брат* | `obl` or `advcl` of the adjective, `mark` or `case` *ніж* |

## 11. How Mova handles it

The fact extractor `kg/src/uk.rs` (chapter 20 § 12) builds noun phrases inside its members:

- **Adjectives** before a noun are linked to it when they agree (`fn adj_agrees`: case, number, gender in the singular, animacy in the accusative); a chain of pre-modifiers is resolved right to left (the `premod` array). Unattached adjectives go to the nearest agreeing head.
- **Genitive attributes**: a non-pronominal genitive right after a noun is its `attribute`.
- **Prepositional phrases**: a preposition, optional agreeing adjectives, and a noun in a case the preposition governs (VESUM `rv_*`); when several cases fit, the preference is Loc, Acc, Ins, Gen, Dat (`PP_CASE_ORDER`), and Gen first after pronouns (*у мене*), after *з/із/зі/зо*, and for an animate noun after *у/в* whose Gen and Acc coincide (*у друга*). The relation keeps the preposition and case: `adverbial:в+v_mis`.
- **Quantity words** (`QUANT`: *багато, мало, кілька, декілька, чимало, небагато, скільки, стільки, трохи, достатньо, недостатньо, більше, менше, повно, обмаль, замало, забагато*) + a genitive noun become a member `quantity:<word>`.
- **Numerals are not handled**: VESUM's `numr` part of speech (value 9 in `POS_NAMES`) is never used by the rules, and digits reject the sentence (`Reject::Digit`).
- **Comparison** is not handled: a comparative adjective is an ordinary adjective, and *за брата*, *від мене* are prepositional phrases that must attach as adverbials of a verb.

### 11.1 Measured (kg at the worktree's commit, CPU, 2026-11-06)

| sentence | kg output | right? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *Багато людей прийшло.* | predicate *прийти* (past neut.), `quantity:багато` *людина* (Gen pl), implicit neuter subject | partly: the quantifier phrase is found, but it is not recognised as the subject |
| *Багато людей прийшли.* | the same with a plural predicate and an implicit plural subject | partly, as above |
| *Прийшли два студенти.* | rejected: not covered by rules | no |
| *Прийшло п'ять студентів.* | rejected: not covered | no |
| *Я купив три книжки.* | rejected: not covered | no |
| *Я бачив п'ятьох студентів.* | rejected: not covered | no |
| *Він старший за брата.* | rejected: not covered (no verb; the verbless rule does not take a PP) | no |
| *Вона вища від мене.* | rejected: not covered | no |
| *Минулої осені ми жили в селі.* | rejected: not covered | no (the genitive of time is a known gap in [kg — the Mova knowledge graph](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/)) |
| *Я дав братові книжку.* | object Dat *брат*, object Acc *книжка* | yes |
| *Я хочу пити воду.* | `predicate:infinitive` *пити*, object *вода* (Acc) governed by the infinitive | yes |

### 11.2 Not yet

- No numerals: neither the agreement of *два, три, чотири* nor the government of *п'ять* and above; no digits.
- Quantifier phrases are members but not subjects; no choice of verb number.
- No comparison constructions, no possessive adjectives as such (they are adjectives), no apposition, no relative clauses or participle phrases (commas reject the sentence).
- The extractor does not check the *у/в* or *і/й* euphony, and has no register labels for contested governments (*згідно закону*, *по питанню*).
- No Ukrainian UD parser.

## 12. Sources

- Smerechynskyi, Serhii. 1932. *Нариси з української синтакси*. Kharkiv. Ch. VI (time constructions, *за* + Gen), ch. VII (prepositions: *по* + Acc, compound prepositions), ch. VIII (the possessive adjective instead of the possessive genitive), ch. XI (numerals: collectives, approximation, agreement after *два–чотири* and after *двадцять один*), ch. XVIII and XXI (verbal nouns), ch. XXV (correlatives). `smerechynskyi-1932-narysy-z-ukrainskoi-syntaksy` (public domain in UA/EU)
- *Український правопис*. 2019. § 23 (*у/в*), § 32.4 (feminine personal nouns), § 104 (degrees of comparison), § 105 (cardinal numerals). `ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019` (official text)
- Janda, Laura A. and Yuliia Palii. 2024. Understanding 'many' through the lens of Ukrainian багато. *Russian Linguistics* 48. `janda-2024-bahato-many` (CC BY 4.0)
- Synchak, Olena and Vasyl Starko. 2022. Ukrainian Feminine Personal Nouns in Online Dictionaries and Corpora. COLINS 2022. `synchak-2022-feminine-dictionaries` (CC BY 4.0)
- Universal Dependencies 2.18: UD_Ukrainian-IU (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; counts only), UD_Ukrainian-ParlaMint (CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted by `sent_id`); counted 2026-11-06, all splits.
- Folk songs as cited by Smerechynskyi (*два персники золотії*); public domain.
- Mova: `kg/src/uk.rs` (`fn verbal`, `fn adj_agrees`, `PP_CASE_ORDER`, `PP_PRON_CASE_ORDER`, `QUANT`), `kg/src/gram.rs` (`POS_NAMES`), `kg/src/morph.rs` (`gov_mask`), [kg — the Mova knowledge graph](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/).
- [← previous 21. Clause structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/21-clause-structure/)
- [next → 23. Complementation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/23-complementation/)
- [↑ back to Ukrainian: a reference manual for Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/)