Ukrainian language similar to Polish?

My guess is that the inifintives should be iskati and govoriti.

I have pointed that out many times before like now how your statements contradict each other.

Vlad1234

stop looking at the world through the veil of history

too many poles do that already

Kinda tough NOT to do, as Poland, along with the rest of Europe, is darn well mired in itLOL

but you have failed to mention the most significant city which had been Polish for a period of time in the past: Moscow.


Russians only by their language and culture. Otherwise they are ctizens of Ukraine.

Sometimes as a peasant language and it is strangely looked upon by some. Others may just be happy that someone speaks the nation's own language, though. Depends on whom you meet.

In Kiyv, as well as e.g. Odessa, they may even "pretend" that they don't understand you if you speak Ukrainian, so I was told by Ukrainian friends!

In addition, speaking Russian in let's say Lwow (Lviv) could get you the raised eyebrows and suspicious looks as well!

Not really. That's just nonsense spread by Partiya Rehioniv. It might be the case in small villages in Western Ukraine, but not in L'viv.


Odessa perhaps, but not in Kyiv.

I can tell you that Polish and Ukranian are actually very similar... apart from having different alphabets. As a fluent speaker of Polish, I can understand Czech almost perfectly and Ukranian takes me about 5 seconds to figure out after spoken lol. I'm sure if someone starts blabbering in Polish really fast you will have trouble understanding, but pretty much the entire basic routes of Polish and Ukranian are the same.. with the exception of the more recently introduced words. I'll give you some examples of the similarity and I'll spell out both languages phonetically: (I won't put in English translations, let's see how many of them you understand lol) Also I'm sure all words for alcoholic drinks are the same, like pivo, vodka, vino... as well as basic farmland words like Dzevo, Drevno, Krova, Baran, Pole...

Polish: co ty robysh Polish: scheshlivey podruzy Polish: tak troche Polish: Ya ciebie Kocham, Ya ciebie lubie Polish: Stuy Polish: psheprasham
Ukranian: shcho ty robysh Ukranian: Šèaslyvoji podorož Ukranian: Tak, trochy Ukranian: ya tebe kochayu Ukranian: Stiy Ukranian: Pereprošuju

Polish: gdzie ty idzesh Polish: ya rozumie Polish: Dzenkuye Polish: Tance z Vilkamy (ruslana) Polish: Mnustvo Lat Polish: Vitay
Ukranian: kudy ty ydesh Ukranian: Ya rozumiju Ukranian: Diakuyu Ukranian: Tanci z vovkamy Ukranian: Mnohaja Lita Ukranian: Vitayu

Polish: Smachnego Polish: Vy rozmaviache po Ukrainsku? Polish: chces ze mna potanchych? Polish: Do Pomoci/ pomoci Polish: Nazyvam sie Polish: Vybach
Ukranian: Smaènoho Ukranian: Vy rozmovliajete ukrajinśkoju Ukranian: Choèeš zi mnoiu potanciuvaty? Ukranian: Dopomoži» Ukranian: Mene zvu» Ukranian: Vybaète

I have my doubts about that ;-)

I think you have a rather simplistic approach to languages and probably often fall into traps of your own making. The examples you have given of Polish - Ukrainian similarities do not really prove anything much except that some of the most typical Slavic words and phrases are shared. In order to convince me, you would have to quote a longer text in Ukrainian and prove to me that its meaning is immediately obvious to a Polish speaker.

You would also have to the same for Czech to prove that you can "understand it almost perfectly".

"Keramika (řecky "pro hrnèířství") je anorganický nekovový materiál nebo uhlíkový materiál, vyrobený za vysokých teplot. První keramika se objevuje v mladém paleolitu, konkrétně gravettienu, resp. pavlovienu. Šlo o hliněné sošky (např. věstonická venuše, která je světoznámá právě tím, že je vypálená z hlíny a nikoli, jako všechny ostatní, vyrytá z mamutoviny èi kamene), které představovaly první izolované pokusy o její výrobu a brzy vymizely. Jediným a nejstarším místem výskytu mladopaleolitické keramiky na světě jsou lokality pod Pavlovskými vrchy (Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov) na Moravě. [1] (V 8. století př. n. l. se objevují první výrobky užité keramiky - tedy nikoli už jen sošky pravěkých umělců.[2])

V dnešní době se názvem keramika dále oznaèují i některé hi-tech materiály, používané například v armádě jako souèásti pancéřování. Obvykle se jedná o slinuté karbidy kovů (wolframu, titanu, chromu, molybdenu, tantalu, niobu a jiných), oxid hlinitý (Al2O3), různé nitridy a boridy. Mají pochopitelně i své civilní využití, karbidy kovů se používají například na různých vrtácích nebo pilách a jiných nástrojích jako takzvané hroty nebo vložky z tvrdokovu - nejběžnějším příkladem je vrták do betonu s hrotem z "vidia"."

This is a short Wiki text in Czech. How much do you ACTUALLY understand without googling anything?

As an outsider, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian sound very similar to one another. Polish sounds different as do most other Slavic languages. There is something soft about these languages that make them sound similar to one another. I cannot yet discern between Russian and Ukrainian, but with time it should get easier.

z0ltan - stop personal attacks on registered users in this forum, it's the last warning before your IP will be banned, and you'll lose possibility to enter PF. Thanks.

Polish is a disgusting sounding language.

It is no surprise that Ukrainian (and to a smaller extent) Belarusian have tons of Polish words, and are therefore more lexically similar to Polish than to Russian. Grammar, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether. Remember that Ukraine was under Polish rule for over 700 years. Of course, it was heavily Polonised. Real Ukrainian has, probably, been lost forever in the mists of History.

Not so smart after all , your use of " lexically ", and punctuation reveal your true identity here on PF, so stop being naughty

A chacteristic feature of Ukrisanian is the "-ty" infinitive ending. My late dziadek, a great jokester and yarn-spinner, once recited this naughty bit of verse in what he said was Ukrainian:

Perdyty i sraty, trawy sie trymaty.
Trawa sie porwała,
Dupa sie zwalała.

Thank you a lot for this. Why do you think Ukrainians are linguistically similar? Can you understand some Ukrainian?

A little bit. Slavic languages in general are similar to some extent.

How do you find Slovak, Torq? The Eastern Slovak dialect seems to be hilariously similar to Polish to my ears - I could communicate there easily and without problems.

My wife worked with a Slovak girl once, and it always made me laugh how they talked to each other in their respective languages and understood themselves perfectly well. :)

Many words have common roots, but pronunciation is very different. For example this is a Ukrainian song that became very popular in Ukraine and outside. I afraid you will be able to understand quite a little from it.

youtube.com/watch?v=5Fv19KVVya8

For comparison - a Russia song. Would you be able to understand something?
youtube.com/watch?v=wundb_vF4UU

Songs in foreign languages are in general difficult to understand. I have an English friend who speaks good Polish, but she had problems understanding anything from this song...

youtube.com/watch?v=du2DW2V2BG0

As for Russian and Ukrainian, when it comes to spoke/written languages, I find Ukrainian slightly more comprehensible.

Only slightly? Russian to me is incomprehensible, but Ukrainian (as spoken in Lviv) to be much easier. I had an entertaining situation in a coffee shop where I told the woman working there that I could understand her, but I couldn't read the names of the products. No problem at all :)

Majority of Poles like to claim the same thing. I would wish it is true, but rather disbelieve in it. I don't think Ukrainian could be MUCH more comprehensible for Poles than Russian. Ukrainian and Polish pronunciation is quite different and Ukrainian has many small unique pronunciation features which make it different from both Russian and Polish. For example:

Polish - Ukrainian - Russian
Noc - Nicz - Nocz
Most - Mist - Most
Mózg - Mozok - Mozg
żona - drużyna - żena

The main problem Poles have is adjusting to accents.
Older Slowaks learn Polish quickly because they have open ears from years of listening to Czech.
Polish ears are fairly closed to different accents.
My ears are quite British,used to adjusting to many different accents and I can understand quite a lot of spoken Russian and Ukrainian.
Ukrainian is easier,agree with Delph here,but he is British too.

How many % approximately?

You're not wrong there. Even though the words can be found in the comment section, I could only pick out a couple from listening to the song.

Not much,but enough to have an idea about what is being spoken about,even though not understanding what is being said in detail.

I don't deny there are many borrowings, but I think many words which sound similar can be a cognates rather than borrowings. Many borrowings from Polish sound in Ukrainian differently from Polish. For example Polish Dziękuję Ci (which is borrowing from German "Danke") sounds in Ukrainian like "diakuju", what is similar to Czech "Děkuji". So, do not expect you will recognize all the Polish borrowing in Ukrainian.