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English and Ukrainian: renderings by context

Many English and Ukrainian words have several correct translations, and which one is right depends on the context: the collocate (raise children vs raise prices), the syntactic frame (get + adjective vs get + noun), the domain (case in a court, a clinic or a grammar), the register (OK → гаразд or, for a surzhyk-speaking character, ладно) and the reader (you → ти, ви or Ви). English leaves much of this unmarked that Ukrainian has to decide: the aspect of every verb, foot or vehicle in every verb of motion, ти or ви, the subject's own свій, the gender of you were right. Ukrainian, for its part, packs several English words into one: справа, питання, рішення, вирішити, відповідати, складати, захід, рада. This list gives one row per word in one context, both directions, with the preferred rendering, acceptable alternatives, what to avoid, and a corpus example where one exists. It extends the pair manual English and Ukrainian: the pair manual (§2–§8 and §16) and stays consistent with it; the look-alike traps proper are in the companion list English and Ukrainian: false friends.

Data and method

The rendered list below is regenerated from en-uk.tsv and en-uk.examples.tsv with parallel choices-md; edit the TSV, not the entries.

1. Function words, modals and address

English modals, conjunctions and particles each split into several Ukrainian renderings by frame: must is obligation or inference, would is a conditional, a past habit or a future in the past, since is time or cause, just is "only", "a moment ago" or "exactly". The pronoun you is not translated but chosen: by the relation (a friend, a stranger, a customer), by number, by text type (a letter to one person capitalises Ви), and by genre (prayer uses ти). Ukrainian particles (ж, таки, хіба, невже) have no English word; they become intonation, a tag question or an emphatic do.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=function src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=function src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

2. Grammar: aspect, motion, voice, case and possession

The English tense and frame decide the Ukrainian aspect: a result or a single event takes the perfective, a background, a habit or a process the imperfective, and a present-perfect state the present with вже (pair manual §4.1). English go, leave, run do not say foot or vehicle, determinate or indeterminate; Ukrainian must. The English passive becomes, by text type, a 3rd plural (speech), a -но/-то form (news and official prose), a reflexive (generic statements) or an active (an agent with by). Possessives drop or turn into свій; government changes (грати на гітарі, у футбол, сумувати за тобою). In the other direction the Ukrainian aspect and motion verb must be read back into English tense: Я прочитав is not I was reading, ходжу is not I'm going.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=grammar src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=grammar src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

3. Everyday polysemy

The high-frequency English verbs (get, take, make, keep, miss, leave, meet) and nouns (case, point, matter, letter, paper) are where a word-for-word choice fails most often; the collocate or the frame usually decides, and the rows give the context word that does. Ukrainian everyday homographs and polysemes (справа the noun and справа "on the right", рада "council" and рада "glad", ручка "pen", "handle" and "little hand", здається "it seems" and здатися "surrender") need the same care into English.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=everyday src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=everyday src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

4. Collocations

Light verbs and fixed phrases are rendered as wholes: make a decision → вирішити or ухвалити рішення, take place → відбутися, make sense → мати сенс, have lunch → обідати. A calque of the light verb (✗ робити сенс, ✗ мати місце, ✗ мали обід) is the typical error; some calques are widespread and accepted in speech (грати роль, прийняти рішення), and the rows say so.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=collocation src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=collocation src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

5. Register: official, neutral, colloquial, slang, song

The same English word takes different Ukrainian forms by register: thanks → дякую (neutral) or спасибі (colloquial); really → дуже or youth реально; baby in a love song → мала, кохана, not дитинко; dear in a letter → Шановний or Дорогий. Into English, Ukrainian register markers (biblical дїла, older язик, army крайній, colloquial права) have to be read before they are translated.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=register src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=register src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

Surzhyk: English → Ukrainian

Surzhyk items are right for a character whose English speech is socially placed in a comparable way, for humour whose point is the speech, and for popular songs; not for a narrator or a neutral text (Translating into Ukrainian §3.6, pair manual §8.3). One or two marked items per line usually suffice.

<!-- entries domain=surzhyk src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Surzhyk: Ukrainian → English

A surzhyk source line is translated by its register, not by its forms: casual, unpretentious English without importing a known English dialect.

<!-- entries domain=surzhyk src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

Russian interference: English → Ukrainian

These are renderings that reach Ukrainian through Russian (приймати участь, вступити в силу, на протязі, слідуючий, міроприємство). Several are frequent in speech and in older official texts; in current neutral and official prose the native form is the house norm, and in a character's speech the contact form can be right.

<!-- entries domain=russian src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Russian interference: Ukrainian → English

When the Ukrainian source contains a contact form, its meaning is the Russian one: являється is "is", not "appears"; на протязі is "during", not "in a draught".

<!-- entries domain=russian src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

6. Law and the EU

Legal English has its own readings of ordinary words: shall is obligation (Ukrainian present or зобов'язаний), provide for is передбачати, provided that is за умови, що, provisions are положення, meet requirements is відповідати вимогам, a Regulation is a регламент. Ukrainian legal words map back by context: справа is a case, вимога a requirement, a demand or a claim, діяти "be in force".

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=law-eu src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=law-eu src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

7. Politics, news and war reporting

News English uses issue, address, state, report, officials, claim, according to; war reporting adds strike, shelling, troops, casualties. Each has a settled Ukrainian news rendering (питання, розв'язати, держава, за повідомленнями, посадовці, стверджувати, за словами; удар, обстріл, війська, втрати); soldiers' speech differs (pair manual §8.2, §16.4). Into English, влада is "the authorities" or "power", рада the Rada or a council, громада a community or the municipal unit.

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=politics src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=politics src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

8. Economy and work

Banking and business senses of everyday words: interest → відсотки, share → акція, account → рахунок, bill → рахунок or законопроєкт, run a business → керувати, raise prices → підвищити, raise money → зібрати кошти. Into English, складає + an amount is "is" or "amounts to", забезпечити кого чим is "provide with".

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=economy src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=economy src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

9. Medicine

A case of flu is a випадок, a condition a стан or захворювання, a drug ліки or наркотик by context, a trial a клінічне випробування; take medicine is приймати, deliver a baby is народити or прийняти пологи. Into English, звернутися до лікаря is "see a doctor" and ліки діють is "the medicine works".

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=medicine src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=medicine src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

10. IT

Interface Ukrainian has settled terms (pair manual §16.1): save → зберегти, set up → налаштувати, account → обліковий запис (with the everyday акаунт), share → поділитися, drive → диск, privacy policy → політика конфіденційності. Office jargon (розшарити, саппорт) is a register, not the default.

<!-- entries domain=it src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

11. Science and academia

Academic English hedges with verbs that are false guides in Ukrainian: results suggest → свідчать, not пропонують; statistically significant → значущий, not значний; evidence → дані or докази; paper → стаття. Into English, наука is wider than science (гуманітарні науки = the humanities).

English → Ukrainian

<!-- entries domain=academic src_lang=en --> <!-- /entries -->

Ukrainian → English

<!-- entries domain=academic src_lang=uk --> <!-- /entries -->

Limits

See also: Translation: manuals for Mova (stance and conventions), the pair manual English and Ukrainian: the pair manual, and the false friends English and Ukrainian: false friends.

The Elamur team

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/context/en-uk/