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# 38. Dialogue and discourse markers

**On this page**

1. [1. What discourse markers do](#1-what-discourse-markers-do)
2. [2. The inventory](#2-the-inventory)
3. [3. How frequent they are](#3-how-frequent-they-are)
4. [4. The markers one by one](#4-the-markers-one-by-one)
5. [5. Answers, agreement and backchannels](#5-answers-agreement-and-backchannels)
6. [6. Interjections](#6-interjections)
7. [7. Repairs and disfluency](#7-repairs-and-disfluency)
8. [8. Parenthetical words: the codified classes](#8-parenthetical-words-the-codified-classes)
9. [9. The shape of a dialogue](#9-the-shape-of-a-dialogue)
10. [10. Varieties, generations and surzhyk as deltas](#10-varieties-generations-and-surzhyk-as-deltas)
11. [11. Quick reference: discourse markers in UD](#11-quick-reference-discourse-markers-in-ud)
12. [12. How Mova handles it](#12-how-mova-handles-it)
13. [13. Sources](#13-sources)

Spoken Ukrainian is held together by small words that carry no propositional content: *ну* (*nu*) opens a turn, hesitates, urges or concedes; *от* and *ось* point and sum up; *ж* insists on what the hearer should already know; *таки* says "after all, despite expectation"; *хіба* doubts; *значить* and *отже* draw a conclusion; *знаєте*, *розумієте*, *слухайте*, *дивіться* call for attention; *так*, *ні*, *да*, *ага*, *еге ж*, *авжеж*, *гаразд* answer and acknowledge; *ой*, *ох*, *йой*, *ого* react. This chapter describes these **discourse markers** and the dialogue they organise: the inventory and its functions, the counts in a written and a spoken treebank and in news and mixed prose (2026-11-06), the individual markers, answers and backchannels, interjections, repairs, the codified classes of parenthetical words, the variation across regions, generations and surzhyk as deltas over the literary standard, and what Mova does with them today: it keeps some as `particle` members and reads none.

Contents

1. [What discourse markers do](#1-what-discourse-markers-do)
2. [The inventory](#2-the-inventory)
3. [How frequent they are](#3-how-frequent-they-are)
4. [The markers one by one](#4-the-markers-one-by-one)
5. [Answers, agreement and backchannels](#5-answers-agreement-and-backchannels)
6. [Interjections](#6-interjections)
7. [Repairs and disfluency](#7-repairs-and-disfluency)
8. [Parenthetical words: the codified classes](#8-parenthetical-words-the-codified-classes)
9. [The shape of a dialogue](#9-the-shape-of-a-dialogue)
10. [Varieties, generations and surzhyk as deltas](#10-varieties-generations-and-surzhyk-as-deltas)
11. [Quick reference: discourse markers in UD](#11-quick-reference-discourse-markers-in-ud)
12. [How Mova handles it](#12-how-mova-handles-it)
13. [Sources](#13-sources)

Related chapters: particles as the main pragmatic word class in [30. Pragmatics: an overview](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/30-pragmatics-overview/), § 3; requests, thanks and greetings in [31. Speech acts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/31-speech-acts/); hedges and address in [32. Politeness and hedging](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/32-politeness-and-hedging/); ironic *ну*, *аякже*, *ага* in [34. Irony and figurative language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/34-irony-and-figurative-language/); tag questions in [26. Questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/26-questions/); connectives in [36. Discourse relations](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/36-discourse-relations/); register in [37. Register and variation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/37-register-and-variation/); the lexicon of set phrases in [19. The lexicon: where the words come from, multiword expressions and register](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/19-lexicon-mwe-register/).

Conventions as in chapter 20: examples in Cyrillic italics, romanized by the national system (2010) on first use, glossed; sentences from UD Ukrainian-ParlaMint (CC BY-SA 4.0) quoted with their `sent_id`; UD Ukrainian-IU (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) and Brown-UK (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) for counts only. Counts: UD 2.18, all splits, `awk`, word forms with the capitalised variant folded in by hand; Leipzig *ukr_news_2024* (1 M sentences, about 14.2 M words, CC BY) and Brown-UK (1,037,038 words) with case-insensitive whole-word `grep -oiw`, 2026-11-06. Chapter 30 counts the news corpus in lowercase only, which gives smaller numbers for sentence-initial markers (for *ну*: 225 there, 413 here).

---

## 1. What discourse markers do

A discourse marker comments on the utterance or the interaction, not on the world. *Ну, я ж казав* 'Well, I told you' says the same as *Я казав* 'I told you' about what happened, and adds that the speaker takes up the turn with some reluctance or resignation (*ну*) and that the hearer ought to have known (*ж*). The functions overlap; the main ones:

| function | what the marker does | Ukrainian markers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| turn-taking | opens, holds or yields the turn | *ну*, *так*, *от*, *значить*, *е-е*, *слухайте*, *так?* |
| framing and structuring | starts a topic, sums up, returns, closes | *отже*, *от*, *значить*, *коротше*, *ну от*, *так от*, *до речі*, *взагалі* |
| stance and expectation | marks shared knowledge, counter-expectation, doubt | *ж/же*, *таки*, *хіба*, *невже*, *адже*, *бо* (final) |
| hedging and approximation | weakens commitment or precision | *мабуть*, *напевно*, *здається*, *ніби*, *типу*, *як би* |
| attention and contact | appeals to the hearer | *знаєте*, *розумієте*, *бачите*, *слухайте*, *дивіться*, *уявляєте* |
| response | answers, agrees, acknowledges | *так*, *ні*, *да*, *ага*, *угу*, *еге ж*, *авжеж*, *гаразд*, *добре*, *окей* |
| reaction | expresses emotion | *ой*, *ох*, *ах*, *ех*, *йой*, *ого*, *овва* |
| repair | marks a correction or a search | *тобто*, *вірніше*, *точніше*, *ну*, *е-е*, repetition |

## 2. The inventory

| marker | romanization | main functions | constructed example | gloss |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *ну* | nu | turn opening; hesitation; urging; concession; irony | *Ну, давай.* | 'Well, go on then.' |
| *от*, *ось* | ot, os | pointing; presenting; summing up; emphasis | *От і все.* | 'And that's all.' |
| *ото*, *оце* | oto, otse | emphatic pointing; 'that's what' | *Оце так!* | 'Well I never!' |
| *ж*, *же* | zh, zhe | shared knowledge; reproach; emphasis on the question word | *Ти ж знаєш.* | 'You know, after all.' |
| *таки* | taky | counter-expectation; insistence | *Таки прийшов.* | 'He did come after all.' |
| *хіба* | khiba | doubt; question expecting "no" | *Хіба це важко?* | 'Is that really hard?' |
| *невже* | nevzhe | surprise | *Невже?* | 'Really?' |
| *бо* (final) | bo | impatience | *Іди вже, бо!* | 'Go on, will you!' |
| *значить* | znachyt | conclusion; turn opening | *Значить, так.* | 'Right, so.' |
| *отже* | otzhe | conclusion; resumption | *Отже, почнімо.* | 'So, let's begin.' |
| *коротше* | korotshe | cutting short; topic closing | *Коротше, ми пішли.* | 'Long story short, we left.' |
| *типу* | typu | approximation; quoting; filler | *Він типу не знав.* | 'He kind of didn't know.' |
| *як би* | yak by | approximation (calque of Russian *как бы*) | *Я як би не проти.* | 'I'm sort of not against.' |
| *мабуть*, *напевно*, *певно* | mabut, napevno | uncertainty | *Мабуть, піде дощ.* | 'It will probably rain.' |
| *власне* | vlasne | precision; 'actually, as such' | *Власне, я про це й кажу.* | 'That's exactly what I mean.' |
| *взагалі* | vzahali | generalising; 'actually; at all' | *Ти взагалі слухаєш?* | 'Are you listening at all?' |
| *до речі* | do rechi | digression | *До речі, ти чув?* | 'By the way, did you hear?' |
| *знаєш/знаєте* | znaiesh/znaiete | contact; shared knowledge | *Знаєте, я подумав…* | 'You know, I thought…' |
| *розумієш/розумієте* | rozumiiesh/rozumiiete | appeal to understanding | *Це, розумієте, складно.* | 'It is, you understand, complicated.' |
| *слухай/слухайте* | slukhai/slukhaite | attention; mild protest | *Слухайте, так не можна.* | 'Look, you can't do that.' |
| *дивись/дивіться* | dyvys/dyvitsia | attention; explanation follows | *Дивіться, тут така річ.* | 'Look, here's the thing.' |
| *бач*, *бачиш/бачите* | bach, bachysh | 'you see' | *Бачиш, я мав рацію.* | 'You see, I was right.' |
| *так*, *ні* | tak, ni | yes, no; turn opening (*так*) | *Так, продовжуймо.* | 'Right, let's continue.' |
| *да* | da | 'yes' in everyday speech; tag 'right?' | *Будемо, да.* | 'We will, yes.' |
| *ага*, *угу*, *еге*, *еге ж* | aha, uhu, ehe, ehe zh | backchannel; agreement | *Ага, зрозумів.* | 'Uh-huh, got it.' |
| *авжеж*, *атож*, *аякже* | avzhezh, atozh, aiakzhe | emphatic 'of course'; *аякже* often ironic | *Авжеж, прийду.* | 'Of course I'll come.' |
| *гаразд*, *добре*, *окей* | harazd, dobre, okei | acceptance, closing | *Гаразд, домовились.* | 'All right, agreed.' |

Several items are polyfunctional across word classes: *так* is an adverb 'so, thus', a conjunction (*так що*), an answer 'yes' and a turn opener; *от* and *ось* are particles of pointing and markers of summing up; *ну* is a particle and an interjection; *знаєте* and *слухайте* are verbs used as markers.

## 3. How frequent they are

### 3.1 Two treebanks

Word-form counts and the rate per 10,000 words, all relations (IU: written, 99,495 words; ParlaMint: parliamentary speech 2003–2022, 89,858 words; 2026-11-06):

| marker | IU | per 10k | ParlaMint | per 10k | main UD relations |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| *ну* | 32 | 3.2 | 90 | 10.0 | `discourse` (29 / 89) |
| *от* | 55 | 5.5 | 20 | 2.2 | `discourse` |
| *ось* | 22 | 2.2 | 24 | 2.7 | `discourse` |
| *ж* | 181 | 18.2 | 96 | 10.7 | `discourse`; `fixed` in *все ж*, *той же* |
| *же* | 41 | 4.1 | 24 | 2.7 | `discourse` |
| *таки* | 39 | 3.9 | 31 | 3.4 | `discourse`; ParlaMint `fixed` 20 (*все ж таки*) |
| *хіба* | 12 | 1.2 | 4 | 0.4 | `discourse`, `mark` |
| *мабуть* | 11 | 1.1 | 9 | 1.0 | IU `discourse`, ParlaMint `parataxis` |
| *значить* | 6 | 0.6 | 3 | 0.3 | `root`/`parataxis` (verb) |
| *знаєте* | 10 | 1.0 | 37 | 4.1 | `root`, `parataxis` |
| *розумієте* | 4 | 0.4 | 7 | 0.8 | `root` |
| *бачите* | — | — | 9 | 1.0 | `parataxis` |
| *слухайте* | 4 | 0.4 | 2 | 0.2 | — |
| *дивіться* | 6 | 0.6 | 4 | 0.4 | `root` |
| *власне* | 14 | 1.4 | 12 | 1.3 | `discourse`, `parataxis` |
| *взагалі* | 24 | 2.4 | 48 | 5.3 | `advmod` |
| *да* | 2 | 0.2 | 18 | 2.0 | `discourse`, `parataxis` (INTJ) |
| *шо* (for *що*) | 9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | `mark` |
| *ой* | 9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | `discourse` (INTJ) |

The `discourse` relation itself (counted in chapter 30, § 3.3): IU 2,321 arcs plus 226 `parataxis:discourse`, ParlaMint 791; *ну* is the most frequent `discourse` lemma of ParlaMint (90) and is not among the top of IU, where emphatic *й*, *то*, *навіть* lead.

The two treebanks divide the markers by medium. Parliament has three times IU's *ну*, four times its *знаєте*, nine times its *да*, and all its *бачите*: the markers of live address to an audience. IU — fiction, news, letters, blog posts and comments — has more of the particles of written dialogue and narrative (*ж* 18 per 10k, *от* 5.5), the colloquial spelling *шо* (9, in posts and fiction), and the interjection *ой*.

### 3.2 News and mixed prose

Per million words (raw counts in parentheses), 2026-11-06:

| marker | Leipzig news 2024 | Brown-UK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *ну* | 29 (413) | 203 (210) |
| *от* | 125 (1,777) | 321 (333) |
| *ось* | 121 (1,719) | 368 (382) |
| *ж* | 721 (10,239) | 1,563 (1,621) |
| *же* | 115 (1,640) | 272 (282) |
| *таки* | 125 (1,775) | 313 (325) |
| *хіба* | 19 (264) | 176 (182) |
| *мабуть* | 40 (562) | 171 (177) |
| *напевно* | 43 (607) | 68 (71) |
| *значить* | 27 (383) | 71 (74) |
| *мовляв* | 39 (551) | 78 (81) |
| *власне* | 50 (708) | 189 (196) |
| *взагалі* | 162 (2,302) | 206 (214) |
| *до речі* | 28 (393) | 84 (87) |
| *знаєте* / *знаєш* | 38 / 8 | 64 / 60 |
| *розумієш* / *бачиш* | 7 / 6 | 28 / 30 |
| *слухай(те)* | 4.7 (67) | 11 (11) |
| *ой* / *ох* | 4.2 / 1.3 | 37 / 19 |
| *ага* / *еге* | 0.5 / 0.1 | 8.7 / 10.6 |
| *авжеж* / *аякже* | 0.8 / 0.1 | 14 / 3.9 |
| *гаразд* / *добре* | 13 / 267 | 29 / 430 |
| *окей*, *ок* | 14 (199) | 4.8 (5) |
| *шо* | 6.5 (92) | 9.6 (10) |

News quotes speech but does not converse: *ну* is seven times rarer than in Brown-UK, *хіба* nine times, *ой* nine times, *ага* and *еге* almost absent. The particles that also serve argument — *ж*, *таки*, *от*, *ось* — have a solid base in news (interviews, columns, Telegram-style reports). *Окей/ок* is more frequent in 2024 news than in Brown-UK (texts mostly from before 2020): a recent borrowing on its way into reported speech. The news *да* (198) is almost all Portuguese and Italian names (*Лула да Сілва*, *да Вінчі*) and quoted Russian; it is not the answer word.

## 4. The markers one by one

### 4.1 *Ну*

The most versatile Ukrainian marker. Its uses in ParlaMint show the range:

- **turn opening with distance or reluctance**: *Ну, я наскільки розумію, передає слово Шуфричу Нестору Івановичу* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u112.p1.lang1.s4) 'Well, as far as I understand, he is giving the floor to Nestor Ivanovych Shufrych';
- **objection and correction**: *Ну, районних судів уже не існує* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u121.p1.lang1.s5) 'Well, district courts no longer exist';
- **ironic concession**: *Ну, нібито непогана законодавча ініціатива, нібито* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u115.p1.lang1.s2) 'Well, supposedly not a bad legislative initiative, supposedly';
- **with *от* for summing up or presenting**: *Ну, от у вас або Росія – або санкції* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u115.p1.lang1.s4) 'Well, there you have it: either Russia or sanctions';
- **urging**, often with an imperative: *Ну, давай!*, *Ну ходімо!*;
- **exclamatory evaluation**: *Ну ти й даєш!* 'Well, you're something!'; *Ну й погода!* 'What weather!' (chapter 34);
- **in questions**: *Ну, яким же чином* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u129.p1.lang1.s7) 'Well, how exactly'; *Ну що?* 'So?'.

In writing, *ну* is set off by a comma when it stands alone at the head of the utterance (*Ну, давай*, as the transcripts above do) and is written without one when it forms a unit with what follows (*Ну й погода!*, *Ну що?*). In UD Ukrainian it is PART `discourse`.

### 4.2 *От*, *ось*, *ото*, *оце*

*Ось* and *от* both point (*Ось він іде* 'Here he comes'; *От він* 'There he is'); *ось* is closer and more neutral, *от* more expressive and more often a marker of summing up or of a conclusion drawn by the speaker: *От і все* 'That's all'; *От тобі й маєш* 'There you go'; *І от тепер у мене питання* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u66.p3.lang1.s1) 'And now here is my question'. *Тут от я зачитаю* (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u74.p1.lang2.s1) 'Here, look, I'll read it out' — *от* after a place adverb, pointing to the speaker's own action. *Ото* and *оце* are emphatic: *Ото й воно!* 'That's just it!'; *Оце так!* 'Wow!'. *Так от* 'so then' resumes after a digression. IU has 55 *от* and 22 *ось*; ParlaMint 20 and 24: *ось* is the parliamentary choice, *от* the narrative and colloquial one.

### 4.3 *Ж/же*

The enclitic *ж* (after a vowel; *же* after a consonant or for emphasis) presents the content as something the hearer knows or should know, and so ranges from reminder to reproach: *Шановні колеги, 36-а, я ж сказав* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u197.p2.lang1.s1) 'Dear colleagues, number 36, I did say so'; *Ну, такого ж не буває* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u202.p7.lang1.s3) 'Well, that just doesn't happen'; *Я окремо ставлю, я ж не зразу* (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u1.p13.lang1.s2) 'I'm putting it separately, I'm not doing it all at once, you see'. In questions it stresses the question word or seeks confirmation: *У вас же немає заперечень?* (ParlaMint-UA_2004-11-27-m0.u2.p7.lang1.s4) 'You have no objections, do you?'. After pronouns and adverbs it marks identity: *той же* 'the same', *тут же* 'right there', *з тієї ж причини* 'for the same reason' — here it is not a discourse marker but part of a fixed expression (UD `fixed` 7 in IU, 23 in ParlaMint). The rate in Brown-UK (1,563 per million) makes *ж* one of the commonest words of Ukrainian prose dialogue.

### 4.4 *Таки*

*Таки* (written with a hyphen after verbs and some particles: *прийшов-таки*, *все-таки*, *так-таки*, and separately elsewhere: *він таки прийшов*) says that the event happened despite doubt, resistance or delay, or insists on it: *Давайте-таки проголосуємо зміни до бюджету* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u147.p5.lang1.s4) 'Let's do vote on the budget changes after all'; *Пане Міністр, все ж таки перекладіть на цифри* (NSDC_UA_28_Feb2014-97) 'Minister, still, put it into figures'. In ParlaMint 20 of 31 are the fixed *все ж таки* 'nevertheless'.

### 4.5 *Хіба*, *невже*

*Хіба* introduces a question whose expected answer is "no", or doubts what was said: *Хіба ти не знаєш?* 'Don't you know?' (= you surely know); *Хіба що* 'unless perhaps'. *Невже* expresses surprise and incredulity: *Невже це правда?* 'Can it really be true?'; alone, *Невже?* 'Really?'. Both are frequent in fiction (Brown-UK *хіба* 176 per million) and rare in news (19). Chapter 26 treats their question syntax.

### 4.6 *Бо* at the end, *-но*, *-ко*

*Бо* after an imperative or at the end of an utterance urges impatiently: *Та йди бо!* 'Go on, will you!'; *Дай бо!*. The enclitics *-но* and *-ко* soften or urge an imperative: *Ходи-но сюди* 'Come here, will you'; *Скажи-ко* 'Tell me, then'. These are colloquial and rural rather than urban; in the treebanks *бо* is a `discourse` particle only 4 times in IU (against 110 as `mark`).

### 4.7 *Значить*, *отже*, *виходить*, *коротше*

*Значить* (from the verb 'it means') draws a conclusion (*Світло горить — значить, він удома* 'The light is on, so he's home') and opens or organises a turn in speech: *Значить, колеги, мова йде про 35 поправку* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u193.p2.lang1.s1) 'So, colleagues, we are talking about amendment 35'. It is old in the literary language — Simovych (1919, § 347) lists it among the parenthetical words of explanation and conclusion with an example from Shevchenko (*Значить, пан у себе з причтом гуляв*) — and the 2019 orthography includes it with *виходить* among the parenthetical connectives (§ 158, item 11, note 1 в). *Отже* is its bookish counterpart (chapter 36). *Коротше* 'in short' cuts a story short or closes a topic (*Коротше, ми пішли*); it is colloquial and youthful, and in surzhyk and Russian-influenced speech it appears as *короче*, *кароче*.

### 4.8 *Типу*, *як би*, *ніби*

*Типу* (genitive of *тип* 'type') is used colloquially as an approximator and quotative 'like, sort of': *Він типу не знав* 'He kind of didn't know'; *А вона типу: «Я не винна»* 'And she's like: "It's not my fault"'. It parallels Russian *типа* and English *like*; it is common among younger speakers and online, and normative advice treats it as slang; the standard hedges are *ніби*, *наче*, *начебто*, *так би мовити*. Most of the 2,184 *типу* in the news sample and 12 of the 16 in IU are the noun ('of the type'), so corpus counts of the marker need a parser. *Як би* as a hedge (*Я як би не проти* 'I'm sort of not against it') is a calque of Russian *как бы* and is criticised in normative writing; the native hedges are *ніби*, *ніби як*, *начебто*. The spelling distinguishes the hedge *як би* (two words) from the conjunction *якби* 'if' (chapter 24, § 6.3).

### 4.9 Verbs of perception and cognition: *знаєте*, *розумієте*, *бачите*, *слухайте*, *дивіться*

Second-person forms of *знати*, *розуміти*, *бачити*, *слухати*, *дивитися* work as contact markers; the plural or polite form dominates in public speech, the singular among friends. ParlaMint uses them to engage the chamber: *Ви знаєте, це яскравий приклад* (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u68.p1.lang1.s2) 'You know, this is a striking example'; *І зараз у нас, бачите, день відновлення справедливості* (ParlaMint-UA_2014-03-04-m0.u64.p3.lang1.s3) 'And now we have, you see, a day of restored justice'; *Ну, слухайте, і це не питання тільки до Міністерства освіти і науки* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u254.p1.lang1.s4) 'Well, listen, this isn't a question only for the Ministry of Education and Science'; *Дивіться.* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u197.p9.lang1.s3) 'Look.' *Розумієте* often frames an objection or exasperation: *Але за основу Верховна Рада не прийняла, ну, як ви не розумієте цього?* (ParlaMint-UA_2004-11-27-m0.u123.p19.lang1.s3) 'But the Verkhovna Rada didn't adopt it as a basis — well, how can you not understand that?'. Simovych (1919, § 347, class 4) already listed *бач*, *бачте*, *знаєте* as parenthetical words that "draw someone's attention to something, or [mark] that something is self-evident", with examples from Shevchenko (*Такі, бачте, люде*), Franko and Fedkovych.

In UD Ukrainian these markers are verbs, attached as `root` or `parataxis` (ParlaMint *знаєте*: 22 `root`, 11 `parataxis`), not as `discourse`.

## 5. Answers, agreement and backchannels

### 5.1 *Так*, *ні*, *да*

The standard answer words are *так* 'yes' and *ні* 'no'. *Так* is also the speaker's "right, so" at the start of a turn: *Так, йдемо тоді по правках* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u120.p12.lang1.s1) 'Right, let's go through the amendments, then'; and a confirmation-seeking tag: *Так?* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u197.p1.lang1.s3); and part of the alternative *Так чи ні?* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u112.p1.lang1.s5) 'Yes or no?'.

*Да* 'yes' is heard in everyday spoken Ukrainian beside *так*, especially in central, eastern and southern speech, and is written in transcripts of speech; the written standard uses *так*. ParlaMint has 18 *да*, as an answer (*Да, бачу* — ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u211.p3.lang1.s4 'Yes, I see'; *Да!* — ParlaMint-UA_2004-11-27-m0.u25.p1.lang2.s1), as an affirmation after a statement (*Будемо, да* — ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u99.p12.lang1.s2 'We will, yes'; *Я за все буду голосувати, да* — ParlaMint-UA_2004-11-27-m0.u123.p28.lang1.s3 'I'll vote for everything, yes') and, most characteristically, as a **confirmation tag**: *Михайла Віталійовича немає, да?* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u116.p2.lang1.s1) 'Mykhailo Vitaliiovych isn't here, right?'; *Є, да?* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u158.p6.lang1.s2) 'There is, right?'. Chapter 26 counts the tags: *так?* 7, *да?* 5, *ні?* 2 in ParlaMint. Hentschel (2023, `hentschel-2023-surzhyk-lexicon`) found the affirmative *да* "almost consistently" in place of *так* in his corpus of surzhyk (about 730,000 word forms recorded in eleven central oblasts and on the Black Sea coast), and notes that *да* also occurs in central Ukrainian dialects, which may have eased its adoption; surzhyk thus has the pair *да – не* (with *не* for 'no' instead of *ні*), as Belarusian–Russian *trasjanka* does. In the Ukrainian of folk texts *да* is also a conjunction 'and' (*да як ударе* 'and how he strikes', in tales quoted by Smerechynskyi 1932), a separate word.

### 5.2 Backchannels and agreement

| marker | use | register |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *ага* | 'uh-huh': listening, understanding, mild agreement; ironic 'yeah, right' (chapter 34) | colloquial |
| *угу* | 'mm-hm': listening | colloquial, mostly spoken |
| *еге*, *еге ж* | 'yes, that's right'; *еге ж?* 'isn't it?' | colloquial, rural and literary-colloquial; Brown-UK 10.6 per million |
| *авжеж*, *атож* | emphatic 'of course' | literary-colloquial |
| *аякже* | 'of course' — often ironic 'oh sure' | colloquial |
| *звичайно*, *звісно*, *певно* | 'of course' | neutral |
| *так-так*, *ні-ні-ні* | doubled answer: impatience or emphasis | colloquial; ParlaMint has *ні-ні-ні* |
| *гаразд* | 'all right, OK': acceptance, closing | neutral |
| *добре* | 'fine, OK' | neutral; ParlaMint *Добре, я почув* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u120.p10.lang3.s2) 'All right, I've heard' |
| *окей*, *ок* | 'OK' | colloquial, younger, online; spreading |
| *зрозуміло*, *ясно* | 'understood', 'clear' | neutral; *ясно* can be curt |

In the written record of parliament the acknowledgements are formulaic: *Добре* 26, *Гаразд* 1, *Дякую* 372 (the closing word of most speeches, attached as a `root` verb), *Спасибі* 7.

## 6. Interjections

The treebanks tag few tokens as INTJ: IU 123, ParlaMint 45 (2026-11-06). IU's most frequent are *так* (27), *ні* (19), *ой* (9), *о* (6), *йой* (6), *га* (4), *ну*, *е* (3 each) and onomatopoeia (*ма-у*, *дзяв*); ParlaMint's are *так* (21), *ні* (7), *да* (7), *спасибі* (6). The written language has a wider set:

| interjection | expresses | example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *ой*, *ой-ой-ой* | pain, fright, surprise, pity; also the opening of folk songs (*Ой у полі…*) | *Ой, болить!* 'Ouch, it hurts!' |
| *ох*, *ах*, *ех* | sighing, regret, resignation | *Ех, якби ж то!* 'Oh, if only!' |
| *йой* | surprise, fright, delight — western (Galician) | *Йой, як гарно!* 'Oh, how lovely!' |
| *ого*, *ого-го* | surprise at size or amount | *Ого, скільки людей!* 'Whoa, so many people!' |
| *овва* | surprise with disbelief or disdain | *Овва, який розумний!* 'Well, aren't we clever!' |
| *га?* | 'eh? what?' (asking to repeat) | *Га? Що ти сказав?* |
| *цить*, *тсс* | 'hush' | *Цить!* |
| *ну*, *ану* | urging | *Ану, геть звідси!* 'Come on, out of here!' |
| *спасибі*, *дякую* | thanks (chapter 31) | — |
| *їй-богу*, *далебі*, *бігме* | oath 'honest to God' | old and western; Simovych (1919, § 347, class 3) quotes *їй-богу* (Shevchenko), *далебі* (Nechui-Levytskyi), *бігме* (Kotliarevskyi) |

Interjections are set off by commas or end with an exclamation mark; *ой* at the start of a folk song line is unpunctuated (*Ой у полі криниченька*), and the song often uses it as a line opener with little emotional content (chapter 37).

## 7. Repairs and disfluency

Speech repairs itself on the fly. UD marks the abandoned part of a repair as `reparandum`, attached to the word that replaces it. ParlaMint, whose transcripts keep much of the spontaneity of the Rada's speech, has 91 `reparandum` (IU 1). Of these, 21 repeat the same lemma (a restart), 67 replace it by a different word (a correction), 3 are fragments (2026-11-06). The repaired words are nouns (36), verbs (25), adjectives (10), prepositions (5) and pronouns (6). Examples:

- restart: *Зі всіма цими пропозиціями ми можемо ставити проект ставити на голосування?* (ParlaMint-UA_2014-03-04-m0.u114.p3.lang1.s3) 'With all these proposals can we put the draft put to the vote?';
- interrupted restart around an apposition: *Комісія має, регуляторний орган, має почати працювати* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u37.p3.lang1.s2) 'The commission must, the regulator, must start working';
- correction with a marker: *Такі закони, вони є не, знаєте, неґрунтовні і…* (ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u262.p1.lang1.s6) 'Such laws, they are not, you know, ungrounded and…' — *не* is abandoned for the prefixed *неґрунтовні*, and *знаєте* fills the search;
- a change of construction: *По першому питанню щодо суцільні перевірки чи вибіркові?* (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u139.p2.lang1.s1) 'On the first question, regarding — full inspections or selective ones?'.

Repair markers are *тобто* 'that is', *вірніше*, *точніше* 'more precisely', *ну* and the filler *е-е*, *ем*. Transcripts usually drop the fillers. The UD ParlaMint documentation records a further reason the data look as they do: its makers chose transcripts from 2003–2022 because earlier ones show partial grammatical correction and later ones "excessive normalization" by speech-to-text tools, such as replacing the vernacular *щас* with *зараз* 'now'; they also removed passages of Ukrainian–Russian code switching and sentences in Russian (UD_Ukrainian-ParlaMint README, 2.18). Shvedova, Lukashevskyi and Rysin (2025, `shvedova-2025-developing-universal-dependencies-treebank-ukrainian`) describe the treebank as capturing "not only official rhetoric but also features of colloquial spoken language", and name the exclusion of code-switched transcripts as a limit of the resource for the study of bilingualism.

## 8. Parenthetical words: the codified classes

The 2019 orthography (`ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019`, § 158, item 11, note 1) sets parenthetical words off with commas and classifies them by what they express, in seven classes (а–е): The classes double as an inventory of written discourse markers:

| class (2019, § 158, 11, note 1, letters as in the original) | examples listed |
| --- | --- |
| а) degree of reality, probability; how usual the content is | *безперечно, без сумніву, безумовно, звичайно, звісно, зрозуміло, певна річ, справді, ясна річ; видно, думаю, здається, либонь, мабуть, може, можливо, очевидно, певно, скоріше за все; було (бувало), бува, як відомо, як завжди* |
| б) emotional evaluation | *на біду, на жаль, на щастя, грішним ділом, чого доброго, як на гріх* |
| в) connection of thoughts, order of presentation | *по-перше, по-друге; з одного боку, з другого боку; наприклад, так, відповідно, отже, таким чином, словом, виходить, значить, зрештою, нарешті; до речі, зокрема, крім того, навпаки*; *проте*, *однак* inside the sentence; *повторюю, підкреслюю* |
| г) the manner of expression | *власне (власне кажучи), інакше кажучи, коротко кажучи, можна сказати, попросту кажучи, сказати б, так би мовити, що називається, як кажуть; головне, між іншим, правда (щоправда), точніше* |
| ґ) expressiveness | *далебі, з дозволу сказати, між нами кажучи, по правді кажучи, чесно кажучи, сказати по правді* |
| д) the source of the message | *кажуть, за повідомленням NN, за словами NN, як сказав NN, на думку NN, на мій погляд, по-моєму, як на мене; мов, мовляв; чую, бачу, пам'ятаю* |
| е) appeal to the hearer or reader, to draw attention | *бач (бачте), бачиш (бачите), віриш (вірите), даруй (даруйте), дозволь (дозвольте), знаєш (знаєте), пам'ятаєш (пам'ятаєте), погодься (погодьтеся), пробач (пробачте), розумієш (розумієте), слухай (послухай), уяви (уявіть)* |

Simovych's classification a century earlier (1919, § 347) is close but organised by the speaker's intention: words that mark (1) the speaker's own opinion (*на мою думку, по-моєму*), (2) doubt (*здається, бачиться, либонь, мабуть, може, певно*), (3) assurance and oaths (*правду сказати, їй-богу, далебі, бігме*), (4) attention to something or its self-evidence (*бач, бачте, знаєте, видно*), (5) explanation and conclusion (*виходить, значить, знай*), (6) apology and request (*не вам кажучи, шкода, будь ласка, хвалити Бога*), (7) others (*на жаль, на щастя, нарешті, сказати б, принаймні, бодай, звичайно, справді*), with the reported-speech words *каже, кажуть, мовляв* treated first. Most of his examples are alive today; *бачиться* 'it seems' and *знай* 'you know' have become dialectal or archaic.

The orthography's list shows the standard following usage: it codifies *значить*, *виходить*, *було* (*бувало*) and the contact verbs *знаєш*, *розумієш*, *слухай*, *уяви* — markers of conversation — as parenthetical words with fixed punctuation, and does not list *типу*, *як би*, *коротше* or *короче*, which remain outside the codified written norm (§ 10). Class е) is the codified form of the contact markers of § 4.9; class д) of the attribution markers of chapter 36, § 9.

## 9. The shape of a dialogue

| stage | Ukrainian means | example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| opening a call | *Алло!*, *Слухаю!* (answering), *Так, слухаю* | *Алло, це Іван?* |
| greeting | *Добрий день!*, *Привіт!*, *Вітаю!*, *Здоров!* (familiar), *Слава Ісусу Христу!* (western, religious) | — |
| opening a topic | *Слухай*, *Знаєш що*, *Тут така справа*, *Значить, так* | *Слухай, тут така справа…* |
| holding the turn | *ну*, *е-е*, *от*, *значить*, *так от* | *Ну, от, значить…* |
| quoting | *каже*, *кажу*, *мовляв*, *типу*, *такий* (youth) | *А він каже: «Ні»* |
| checking understanding | *розумієш?*, *так?*, *да?*, *правда?*, *еге ж?*, *ясно?* | *Ти прийдеш, так?* |
| acknowledging | *ага*, *угу*, *так*, *зрозуміло*, *ясно* | — |
| closing a topic | *коротше*, *ну от*, *от і все*, *загалом* | *Ну от, такі справи.* |
| closing the conversation | *Ну, добре*, *Гаразд*, *Домовились*, *Бувай*, *До побачення*, *На все добре* | *Ну, добре, бувай!* |

Parliamentary dialogue has its own formulas: *Шановні колеги!*, *Слово надається…* 'The floor is given to…', *Будь ласка* (inviting a speaker, 240 times in ParlaMint per chapter 31), *Дякую* (closing a speech), and the chair's turn-taking *Так*, *Добре*, *Гаразд*, *Наступна поправка*.

**Online dialogue.** Korotenko and Kyslyi (2026, `korotenko-2026-two-axis-framework-analyzing-ukrainian`) annotated 1,371 replies in Ukrainian political discussions on Telegram (a large public chat) and on the Ukrainska Pravda forum, each with the nine preceding replies of its reply chain as context, on two axes: **relational conduct** (respect and tone, engagement, conflict management) and **substantive contribution** (reasoning, informativeness, continuity of the dialogue). They found that collapsing the six sub-scores into these two axes raised the agreement between expert annotators, and that treating the scores as ordinal predicted the experts' judgements better than binary or continuous labels. For discourse markers the point is that the same marker can serve either axis: a *слухайте* can open a reasoned objection or a dismissal, and only the context of the chain decides.

## 10. Varieties, generations and surzhyk as deltas

Each variety or style is listed only by what it changes in the discourse markers of the literary standard.

| variety or style | grammar delta | lexicon delta | form / pronunciation delta |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| colloquial standard (all regions) | markers in every clause; *ну* turn openings; doubled answers (*так-так*, *ні-ні*); tags *так?*, *да?*, *правда?* | *да* beside *так*; *ага*, *угу*, *еге*; *значить*, *коротше*, *взагалі*; *слухай*, *дивись*, *знаєш* | fillers *е-е*, *ем*; reduced *шо* for *що* in eastern and southern speech |
| official, parliamentary | contact verbs in the plural and polite form (*знаєте*, *бачите*, *розумієте*); *ну* in objections | *шановні колеги*, *будь ласка*, *дякую*, *отже*, *по-перше*; *добре*, *гаразд* from the chair | — |
| literary narrative | particles of dialogue (*ж*, *таки*, *хіба*, *от*), parenthetical words of § 8 | *авжеж*, *атож*, *еге ж*, *овва*, *бач* | — |
| western (Galician) | — | *йой* (IU 6 INTJ); *бігме*, *далебі*; *ади* 'look!'; *Слава Ісусу Христу!* — *Слава навіки!* as a greeting | — |
| folk speech and song | *ой*, *та й*, *гей* as line openers; *да* 'and' | *еге*, *авжеж*, *бач* | — |
| younger speakers, online | *типу* as quotative and hedge; *як би* hedge; *такий* quotative ('and he's like') | *окей*, *ок*, *лол*, *капець*, *кринж/крінж*, *норм*, *ну таке* | Latin-script and abbreviated spellings |
| surzhyk | the Ukrainian set with Russian replacements in mixed utterances; *да – не* as the answer pair (Hentschel 2023) | *да*, *вот*, *ну вот*, *короче/кароче*, *вообще*, *канєшно*, *тіпа*, *щас*, *ладно* | Russian vowels: *кароче*, *канєшно* |

Two of these deltas are measured above: *да* in parliamentary speech (18 in ParlaMint, 2 in IU) and in surzhyk (consistent, Hentschel 2023); and the spread of *окей/ок* in 2024 news (14 per million) against older mixed prose (4.8). Hentschel's lexical study also gives a measure of how far a surzhyk marker can go: the hyperlexeme *теж/тоже* 'also' has the Ukrainian form in only 4.6% of its occurrences in mixed utterances, and *треба/надо* 'must' the Ukrainian *треба* in 25% against Russian *надо* in 72% — so a surzhyk speaker's *тоже* and *надо* are the norm of the variety, not slips.

## 11. Quick reference: discourse markers in UD

| marker | example | UD Ukrainian analysis |
| --- | --- | --- |
| particle marker | *Ну, давай.* | *ну* PART `discourse` |
| enclitic particle | *я ж сказав* | *ж* PART `discourse` |
| fixed particle phrase | *все ж таки* | `fixed` (ParlaMint) |
| parenthetical adverb | *Він, мабуть, спить.* | IU: `discourse`; ParlaMint: `parataxis` |
| contact verb | *Ви знаєте, це приклад.* | *знаєте* VERB `parataxis` or the `root` |
| answer word | *Так.* / *Да, бачу.* | INTJ or PART `root`, `discourse` or `parataxis` |
| tag | *Є, да?* | *да* `discourse`/`parataxis` |
| interjection | *Ой, болить!* | INTJ `discourse` |
| vocative address | *Шановні колеги, …* | `vocative` (chapter 32) |
| repair | *ставити проект ставити* | first *ставити* `reparandum` of the second |

## 12. How Mova handles it

Mova's pragmatics — sentence labels (form, act, hedge, polarity), cue lists, the dialogue layer — reads English only ([chapter 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/30-pragmatics-overview/), § 11): the hedge and politeness cues in [`prag/data/cues.tsv`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/) and the features in [`prag/src/feats.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/) are English words on English trees, the politeness strategies of [`world/src/talk.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/world/) match English strings, and the label schema [`prag/src/schema.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/) has no field for discourse markers. No Ukrainian text reaches them: no Ukrainian model in [mova-parse](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/tools/mova-parse/), and `langseg` has a Latin-script table only.

The Ukrainian fact extractor `kg` ([`kg/src/uk.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/), [kg — the Mova knowledge graph](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/)) keeps a marker that VESUM tags as a particle as a `particle` member and one tagged as an adverb as an `adverbial` member, without interpreting either; it rejects every sentence with a comma (so every parenthetical marker set off by commas and every vocative), every question, every one-word reply that is not a predicate, and every sentence with a word of its conjunction list (*бо*, *як*, *ніби* …).

Measured on 2026-11-06 (`kg parse`, CPU, worktree commit `ac9a23149`, VESUM, empty name list):

| sentence | kg output | verdict |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *Ну я ж казав.* | predicate *казати* (past), subject *я*, `particle` *ну*, `particle` *ж* | structure right; neither marker read |
| *Ось він іде.* | predicate *іти*, subject *він*, `particle` *ось* | right; pointing not read |
| *От він і прийшов.* | rejected: conjunction (*і*) | the emphatic *і* is taken for the conjunction |
| *Ти мабуть втомився.* | `adverbial` *мабуть* | parsed; the hedge has no mark (with the comma of the standard, *Ти, мабуть, втомився*, the sentence is rejected) |
| *Хіба ти не знаєш.* (no question mark) | `particle` *хіба*, predicate negated | parsed as an assertion; the expected "no" is lost |
| *Він таки прийшов.* | `particle` *таки* | right; counter-expectation not read |
| *Іди бо.* | rejected: conjunction (*бо*) | the final particle is taken for the conjunction |
| *Значить він знав.* | rejected: not covered | *значить* is not resolved |
| *Коротше він пішов.* | `adverbial` *коротше* | parsed as a plain adverbial; the topic-closing function is not recorded |
| *Типу він не знав.* | `object:v_rod` *тип* | **wrong**: the marker is read as the genitive object 'of a type' of the negated verb |
| *Шо ти робиш.* | `object:v_zna` *шо* | the colloquial *шо* is in VESUM and is read as the object 'what' |
| *Слухай мене.* / *Дивись сюди.* | imperative predicate, object / adverbial | right as literal imperatives; the marker use is not distinguished |
| *Ага.* / *Да.* / *Так.* | rejected: not covered | no answer words |
| *Ой болить.* | rejected: not covered | no interjections |

### 12.1 Not yet

- No Ukrainian discourse-marker lexicon and no function labels (turn, stance, hedge, contact, response).
- No reading of answers and backchannels; one-word replies are rejected.
- No separation of a marker from its homonym: *типу* (noun), *коротше* (comparative), *так* (adverb, answer, opener), *бо* (conjunction, particle).
- No dialogue structure: no turns, speakers or reply chains for Ukrainian; no use of ParlaMint's `reparandum` for repair.
- No Ukrainian pragmatic labels at all (chapter 30, § 11.3).

## 13. Sources

- Simovych, Vasyl. 1919. *Граматика української мови для самонавчання та в допомогу шкільній науці*. § 347 (parenthetical words and their classes, with examples from Shevchenko, Franko, Kotliarevskyi, Nechui-Levytskyi, Fedkovych). `simovych-1919-hramatyka-ukrainskoi-movy-dlia` (public domain)
- Smerechynskyi, Serhii. 1932. *Нариси з української синтакси*. Folk texts with *да* 'and'. `smerechynskyi-1932-narysy-z-ukrainskoi-syntaksy` (public domain in UA/EU)
- *Український правопис*. 2019. § 158, item 11, notes 1–2 (parenthetical words, their classes and commas). `ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019` (official text, not under copyright)
- Hentschel, Gerd. 2023. Ukrainian and Russian in the lexicon of Ukrainian Suržyk: reduced variation and stabilisation in central Ukraine and on the Black Sea coast. *Russian Linguistics* 48(1). `hentschel-2023-surzhyk-lexicon` (CC BY 4.0)
- Korotenko, Artem and Roman Kyslyi. 2026. A Two-Axis Framework for Analyzing Ukrainian Dialogues. UNLP 2026. `korotenko-2026-two-axis-framework-analyzing-ukrainian` (CC BY 4.0)
- Shvedova, Maria, Arsenii Lukashevskyi and Andriy Rysin. 2025. Developing a Universal Dependencies Treebank for Ukrainian Parliamentary Speech. UNLP 2025. `shvedova-2025-developing-universal-dependencies-treebank-ukrainian` (CC BY 4.0)
- Universal Dependencies 2.18: UD_Ukrainian-ParlaMint (CC BY-SA 4.0; quoted by `sent_id`; README on the choice of transcripts), UD_Ukrainian-IU (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; counts only); counted 2026-11-06, all splits.
- Leipzig Corpora Collection, *ukr_news_2024* (CC BY) and Brown-UK (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; counts only), uk; counted with `grep -oiw` 2026-11-06.
- Mova: [`kg/src/uk.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/), [kg — the Mova knowledge graph](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/kg/), [`prag/src/schema.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/), [`prag/src/feats.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/), [`prag/data/cues.tsv`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/prag/), [`world/src/talk.rs`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/world/), [mova-parse](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/tools/mova-parse/).
- [← previous 37. Register and variation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/37-register-and-variation/)
- [next → Sources: chapters 00–19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/sources-00-19/)
- [↑ back to Ukrainian: a reference manual for Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/)