він/вона/воно + -е/-є/-ить/-їть

Present Third-person Singular

Level 1Sounds Like vín/vona/vono + -e/-ê/-itʹ/-í̈tʹ

The third-person singular (he/she/it) in Ukrainian uses specific endings based on the verb's conjugation group. Unlike English, there is only one present tense form for both 'he reads' and 'he is reading'.

How It Works

To talk about what someone else is doing (he, she, or it), you must change the infinitive ending. The best way to identify the correct ending is to look at the third-person plural form.

1. First Conjugation (-е / -є)
If the 'they' form ends in -уть or -ють, use these endings:

  • Use -є if the stem ends in a vowel (e.g., читати → читає), after an apostrophe (e.g., пити → п'є), or after a soft consonant (e.g., лити → ллє).
  • Use -е if the stem ends in a consonant (e.g., писати → пише). Note: First Conjugation stems often undergo consonant mutations when the infinitive ending is dropped (e.g., с → ш, к → ч, з → ж).

2. Second Conjugation (-ить / -їть)
If the 'they' form ends in -ать or -ять, use these endings:

  • Use -ить after a consonant (e.g., говорити → говорить).
  • Use -їть after a vowel (e.g., стояти → стоїть).

Note: Unlike First Conjugation verbs, Second Conjugation verbs rarely undergo consonant mutations in the 3rd person singular (they usually only occur in the 1st person singular 'я' form), with rare exceptions like бігти (to run) → біжить.

Pedagogical Tip: A quick way to tell them apart in writing is that in the he/she/it non-reflexive form, Second Conjugation verbs end in a soft sign (-ить/-їть), while First Conjugation verbs do not (-е/-є).

3. Reflexive Verbs (-ся)
When using reflexive verbs in the 3rd person singular, add -ся to the end. For First Conjugation verbs, you must add -ть before the -ся (e.g., мити → миє → миється). For Second Conjugation verbs, the -ть is already there (e.g., вчити → вчить → вчиться). Pronunciation Note: The ending -ться is always pronounced as [ц':а] (like a long 'tsya').

4. Irregular Verbs
Some high-frequency verbs don't follow these rules. Become proficient in these specific forms:

  • бути (to be) → є (is)
  • їсти (to eat) → їсть
  • дати (to give) → дасть (Note: this is perfective, so it means 'will give' in the future tense. For the present tense, use the imperfective давати → дає)
  • відповісти (to answer) → відповість
  • розповісти (to tell) → розповість

Note: Ukrainian is a pro-drop language. If the subject is clear, you can omit він, вона, or воно.

Examples (5)

  1. Вадим читає книгу.

    Vadym is reading a book.

    Word by Word: Vadym reads book.

    The verb 'читати' (to read) is 1st conjugation because the 'they' form is 'читають'. Since the stem ends in a vowel, we add -є.

  2. Він добре говорить українською.

    He speaks Ukrainian well.

    Word by Word: He well speaks Ukrainian.

    The verb 'говорити' (to speak) is 2nd conjugation because the 'they' form is 'говорять'. We add -ить to the consonant stem.

  3. Мій брат пише листа.

    My brother is writing a letter.

    Word by Word: My brother writes letter.

    The verb 'писати' (to write) is 1st conjugation. Note the consonant mutation: the 'с' in the infinitive changes to 'ш' in the present tense stem before adding -е.

  4. Вона стоїть біля вікна.

    She is standing by the window.

    Word by Word: She stands near window.

    The verb 'стояти' (to stand) is 2nd conjugation because the 'they' form is 'стоять'. Since the stem ends in a vowel, we add -їть.

  5. Він лежить на дивані.

    He is lying on the sofa.

    Word by Word: He lies on sofa.

    Verbs ending in -жати, -чати, or -шати like 'лежати' often belong to the 2nd conjugation (вони лежать), so we use the -ить ending.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding a hard -т to the First Conjugation (like in Russian).

    Він читаєт.
    Він читає.

    In standard Ukrainian, First Conjugation verbs do not end in -т in the third-person singular form. Only Second Conjugation verbs end in a soft -ть in this specific form.

  • Using the infinitive instead of the conjugated form.

    Вона читати книгу.
    Вона читає книгу.

    You must conjugate the verb to match the subject. Using the infinitive 'читати' is grammatically incorrect here.

  • Confusing the 2nd person (ти) with the 3rd person (він).

    Він читаєш.
    Він читає.

    The ending -ш is only for 'you' (singular/informal). For 'he/she/it', the -ш must be dropped.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

він/вона/воно + -е/-є/-ить/-їтьLevel 1Present Third-person Singular

Learn This First

To understand this pattern, you must first be familiar with the third-person singular pronouns (he, she, it) which serve as the subjects for these specific verb endings.

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Words in This Pattern

вонавоно