🗣️ 31. Speech acts

An utterance does something: it asserts, asks, requests, promises, thanks, greets. Ukrainian performs these acts with a rich imperative (second person singular and plural, a synthetic first person plural ходімо 'let's go', third-person forms with хай and нехай), with particles that sharpen or soften it (-но, ну, бо), with aspect, which separates a specific request from an invitation, with the conditional би for indirect requests, and with a set of performative formulas (прошу, дякую, вибачте, вітаю) and greetings and wishes that are partly religious, partly civic, partly regional. This chapter describes the forms, counts them in the UD 2.18 Ukrainian treebanks and the Leipzig news corpus (2026-11-06), and says what Mova reads of them: its act labels are English-only; its Ukrainian fact extractor parses simple imperatives and records хай as a particle, but does not label acts.

Contents

1. Acts and Mova's act values
2. The imperative: forms
3. The third person: хай, нехай, най, бодай
4. Proposals: ходімо and давай(те)
5. Aspect in commands and requests
6. Particles on the imperative
7. Softened and indirect requests
8. Imperatives without the imperative: infinitive, dative, narrative imperative
9. Performatives and declarations
10. Thanks and apologies
11. Greetings, leave-taking, wishes and toasts
12. Questions, exclamations and the act they perform
13. Deltas by variety and style
14. How Mova handles it
15. Sources

Related chapters: imperative morphology in 13. Verbs; questions in 26. Questions; politeness and hedging in 32. Politeness and hedging; particles in dialogue in 38. Dialogue and discourse markers; the English chapter 31. Speech acts for Austin's and Searle's classes.

1. Acts and Mova's act values

The classes of Austin and Searle (assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations) are described in the English chapter. Mova's closed set of Act values (prag/src/schema.rs) applies to Ukrainian unchanged:

2. The imperative: forms

2.1 The synthetic forms

The imperative is formed from the present stem (Simovych 1919, simovych-1919-hramatyka-ukrainskoi-movy-dlia, § 252; details in 13. Verbs):

The ending -и is kept when it is stressed, or when the stem ends in two consonants (свисни, глипни). The first person plural has a full form in -імо/-мо (ходімо, зробімо, читаймо) and a short form in -ім/-м (ходім, берім), which Simovych records as the usual spoken form beside the full one; the full -іте for -іть (робіте, окропіте) is poetic (І вражою злою кров'ю волю окропіте in Shevchenko's Заповіт).

2.2 In the treebanks

Tokens with Mood=Imp, all splits, UD 2.18, counted 2026-11-06:

The large second-person-singular count of ParlaMint is almost all one formula, будь ласка 'please' (240 bigrams in the treebank), whose будь is formally the singular imperative of бути 'be' but is addressed to any number of people, singular or plural, ти or Ви; будьте ласкаві 'be so kind' is its agreeing, more formal variant. The rest of the parliamentary imperatives are the chair's procedure: заспокойтеся 'calm down', включіть (мікрофон) 'turn on (the microphone)', запишіться 'sign up (to speak)', дайте (завершити) 'let (me) finish'. The written treebank has almost no imperatives outside quoted dialogue and instructions.

2.3 The subject

The imperative usually has no subject; an overt pronoun adds contrast or insistence: Іди ти перший! 'You go first!'; Ти мені не розказуй! 'Don't you tell me!'. A vocative often stands where English uses the name of the addressee: Мамо, іди сюди! 'Mum, come here!'. The polite form is the plural, also for one addressee: Сідайте, Ганно Петрівно 'Do sit down, Hanna Petrivna'.

3. The third person: хай, нехай, най, бодай

The imperative has no third person. Ukrainian uses the particle нехай or its short form хай with the present or the perfective future (Simovych 1919 § 253 b):

In the south-west the particle is най (also няй): Най так буде 'Let it be so'; Simovych notes it in Western writers (Fedkovych, Lepky) and in the meaning 'leave it, don't touch' (Най його, нехай спить 'Leave him, let him sleep'). Бодай (from Бог дай 'may God give') makes wishes and, more often, curses: Бодай тобі добре було 'May all go well for you', Бодай ти пропав! 'Damn you!' (lit. 'may you perish'). In the Leipzig news corpus нехай (451 with capitals) outnumbers хай (217) two to one; бодай (143) is used mostly in its later sense 'at least' (бодай раз 'at least once') rather than as a wish (counts 2026-11-06). In ParlaMint хай and нехай are rare (6 and 7): a deputy proposes with давайте (§4).

4. Proposals: ходімо and давай(те)

A proposal to do something together has two forms:

All four are old in Ukrainian. Simovych (1919 § 253) gives Давайте на радощах згадаємо давнину from Nechui-Levytskyi and Давайте йти from Hrinchenko's dictionary, and ну-мо from Shevchenko (Ну-мо, Гонто, ну-м, брате Максиме…) and Hlibov; he also records ходім-те, берім-те with the plural -те added to the short first-person form to hasten the act. Давай + infinitive has a second, narrative meaning 'and then he started to …': Жінка давай собі гуляти 'And the woman went off to have a good time' (Franko, cited by Simovych).

What the corpora show (2026-11-06):

Spoken and journalistic Ukrainian proposes mostly with давайте; fiction, poetry and slogans keep the synthetic form (Думаймо про Україну, працюймо заради України – і перемога буде за нами!, ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u15.p5.lang1.s1, 'Let us think of Ukraine, let us work for Ukraine — and victory will be ours!', a peroration). Normative style guides of the purist tradition recommend the synthetic form and treat давайте + future as an influence of Russian давайте; the historical record shows the construction in classic Ukrainian prose, and its frequency in current speech is a fact of usage. Several of the ParlaMint 1 pl imperatives are not proposals but parenthetical formulas: скажімо 'let's say, for instance' (Скажімо, пункт перший складається із трьох варіантів, ParlaMint-UA_2004-11-27-m0.u95.p3.lang1.s2) and так скажімо 'so to speak' — hedges (chapter 32).

5. Aspect in commands and requests

Aspect changes what a Ukrainian imperative does:

The invitation reading of the imperfective is why Сідайте! is polite and Сядьте! can sound like an order: the imperfective takes the act as already agreed and only gives the signal. A Ukrainian host says Пригощайтеся! 'Help yourselves!', never the perfective. The perfective negative is limited to acts the hearer would not do on purpose: Не загубіть ключі! 'Don't lose the keys!' is a warning, Не губіть ключі is odd.

Counts (UD 2.18, all splits, 2026-11-06; second-person imperatives, будь and давай(те) excluded):

In parliament, specific procedural requests make the perfective dominant (включіть, дайте, запишіться, покажіть); negative imperatives are imperfective prohibitions: Шановні колеги, не зловживайте (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u193.p1.lang1.s5) 'Dear colleagues, don't abuse (it)', І не спекулюйте, будь ласка, на цьому (ParlaMint-UA_2014-03-04-m0.u28.p2.lang1.s3) 'And please don't speculate on that'. The two negative perfectives in ParlaMint are both forms of дати, one of them in the fixed не дай Бог 'God forbid'.

6. Particles on the imperative

Simovych (1919 § 253) treats -но, -ко and ну as reinforcements of the command and notes that на, ке, ну take the plural ending -те like verbs (на-те, ке-те, ну-те). The position of будь ласка is free; at the start it makes the request more insistent, at the end more courteous; it also answers a thanks ("you're welcome", §10) and offers a turn (Нестор Іванович Шуфрич, будь ласка, ParlaMint-UA_2022-01-25-m0.u114.p1.lang1.s1 'Nestor Ivanovych Shufrych, please (you have the floor)').

7. Softened and indirect requests

The negated conditional question Чи не могли б Ви… parallels English Couldn't you…? only in form: in Ukrainian it is the most polite request, without the reproach the English negative can carry. The infinitive + б (Поспати б! 'If only I could get some sleep!') expresses a wish without naming who would satisfy it.

Searle's felicity conditions for requests (the act is a future act of the hearer; the speaker believes the hearer can do it; it is not obvious the hearer would do it anyway; the speaker wants it) explain the forms: Чи не могли б Ви asks about ability, Можна about permission, Мені потрібна states the want; the hearer infers the request (English chapter, §5).

8. Imperatives without the imperative: infinitive, dative, narrative imperative

• The infinitive of command, categorical and impersonal: Не палити! 'No smoking!', Встати! Суд іде! 'All rise! The court is in session!', Мовчати! 'Silence!'. Simovych (1919 § 243 n. 1) notes that the infinitive often replaces the imperative in orders. It is the voice of notices, the army and the drill, not of conversation.
• Dative + infinitive: necessity or impossibility, often a warning: Тобі не пройти 'You won't get through', Нам ще працювати і працювати 'We still have a lot of work to do'.
• Future and present as requests: Підеш до магазину? 'Will you go to the shop?' (a request as a question); Зараз ти підеш і вибачишся 'Now you'll go and apologise' (a command as a prediction).
• The narrative imperative: in lively narration the 2 sg imperative replaces the past tense to show a sudden or hurried action, often with візьми (взяти) 'take': А він візьми та й скажи… 'And he up and said…'. Simovych (1919 § 253.4) gives Візьми дурний хлопчисько й удар свого товариша (Makovei) and і до попа біжи, і горілки неси, і хліба печи (Lepky): "a quick task, as if someone were ordering it". The form is not addressed to anyone and performs no request; a parser that reads Mood=Imp as a directive is wrong here.
• Imperative in proverbs and conditions: Не посій — не вродиться 'Don't sow and it won't grow' (condition; Simovych § 253.5); Крути, верти — мусиш умерти 'Twist and turn as you will — you must die' (concession; Simovych § 253.6).

9. Performatives and declarations

An explicit performative names its act in the first person present: Обіцяю, Дякую, Прошу, Вітаю, Клянуся, Наказую, Оголошую. Ukrainian has no hereby; the performative is recognised by the first person, the present tense, the imperfective (a perfective present is a future: Пообіцяю 'I will promise') and the lack of a time adverb.

The performative with the subject expressed (Я дякую, Я прошу) is emphatic or formal; the bare verb (Дякую) is the default, because the first-person ending already names the speaker. Hedged performatives (хочу подякувати, хотів би попросити, дозвольте привітати) are the parliamentary and ceremonial standard: Я хотів би звернутися до наших виборців… (ParlaMint-UA_2003-10-14-m0.u178.p2.lang1.s2) 'I would like to address our voters…'.

10. Thanks and apologies

10.1 Thanks

Replies: Будь ласка 'You're welcome' (lit. 'please'), Нема за що / Немає за що 'Not at all' (lit. 'there is nothing for (which to thank)'), Прошу (Western and formal), На здоров'я 'You're welcome' (for food, a gift). In the Leipzig news corpus нема за що and немає за що occur 14 times together (2026-11-06), in quoted speech.

10.2 Apologies

The apology is followed by the reason with за + accusative (Вибачте за запізнення) or by a clause (Вибачте, що турбую 'Sorry to bother you'). Перепрошую and Вибачте also open a request to a stranger (Перепрошую, як пройти до вокзалу? 'Excuse me, how do I get to the station?'). Replies: Нічого, Нічого страшного 'It's all right', Та що ви 'Not at all'.

Counts, parliamentary speech (ParlaMint, all splits, word forms, 2026-11-06): прошу 200, будь ласка 240, дякую 29, вибач(те) 6, перепрошую 7. In parliament прошу is the chair's verb: it grants the floor (Прошу), asks for order and introduces votes.

11. Greetings, leave-taking, wishes and toasts

Greetings and wishes in the genitive (Доброго ранку, Смачного, Щасливої дороги 'Have a good trip') depend on an unexpressed verb of wishing. In the news corpus Слава Україні occurs 61 times (with case variants) and Героям слава 5; Вітаю 175, Привіт 51, Добрий день 18 (2026-11-06). In parliament the greeting of the whole chamber is Шановні колеги (223 forms of шановн- in ParlaMint), or Шановні народні депутати.

12. Questions, exclamations and the act they perform

Form and act diverge as in every language (chapter 26 for the forms):

13. Deltas by variety and style

Over the literary standard, the varieties and styles change these items (compact deltas; the grammar not listed stays as in the standard):

14. How Mova handles it

14.1 Act labels

Mova labels acts only for English. The Act values of §1 are closed codes in prag/src/schema.rs; they are produced by the labellers of prag from English trees and English cues (prag/src/feats.rs, prag/data/cues.tsv: thank, please, sorry, greetings, promise, warn …) and by the frame reader's map of English verbs of speech to acts (act_of in prag/src/frames.rs). The indirect-request reasoning of the dialogue layer (indirect_request in world/src/talk.rs) matches the English prefixes can you, could you, would you, would you mind; its greeting and leave-taking detector (som_kind) matches bye, how are you, nice to meet you. No Ukrainian verb of speech, performative or formula is in any of these lists, and no Ukrainian sentence reaches them (no Ukrainian model in tools/mova-parse, a Latin-only langseg).

14.2 The Ukrainian fact extractor

kg (kg/src/uk.rs) parses simple Ukrainian sentences into facts. It knows the imperative as a tense value of the predicate (impr, from VESUM), takes no subject for an imperative (the subject search is skipped when the predicate is imperative), treats хай/нехай as a particle, and records the dative and genitive objects of дати and дякувати. It does not label the act. Measured on 2026-11-06 (CPU, kg parse from the worktree at commit ac9a23149, VESUM dict_corp_vis.txt.bz2, empty name list):

14.3 Not there yet

• No Ukrainian act labels; no list of Ukrainian performatives, formulas of thanks, apology, greeting or wish.
• Greeting and politeness formulas are not lexicalised in kg: Добрий день is misparsed, Будь ласка decomposed.
• No aspect-based reading of imperatives (invitation vs request; warning vs prohibition), no detection of the narrative imperative.
• Давай(те) + future, прошу + infinitive and every question are rejected by the kg gates.
• The kg README states its own limits: simple sentences only, no questions, no complex sentences (kg — the Mova knowledge graph, Limits).

15. Sources

• Simovych, Vasyl. 1919. Граматика української мови для самонавчання та в допомогу шкільній науці. § 243 n. 1 (infinitive for the imperative), § 252 (imperative forms), § 253 (uses: -но, -ко, ну, на-те, ке-те, ну-мо, давай, нехай, най, the narrative imperative, concessive and conditional imperatives). simovych-1919-hramatyka-ukrainskoi-movy-dlia (public domain)
• Український правопис. 2019. § 60.2 (capital Ви). ukrainskyi-pravopys-2019 (official text)
• Shvedova, M., Lukashevskyi, A., Rysin, A. 2025. Developing a Universal Dependencies Treebank for Ukrainian Parliamentary Speech. UNLP. shvedova-2025-developing-universal-dependencies-treebank-ukrainian (CC BY 4.0) — the source and character of ParlaMint.
• UD Ukrainian-ParlaMint 2.18 (CC BY-SA 4.0): sentences quoted by sent_id; counts. UD Ukrainian-IU 2.18 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0): counts only. Counted 2026-11-06 with awk over all splits.
• Leipzig Corpora Collection, Ukrainian news 2024 (CC BY): word counts with grep -ow, 2026-11-06. Brown-UK (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0): counts only.
• Shevchenko, T. Заповіт (1845); Franko, Nechui-Levytskyi, Makovei, Lepky as cited by Simovych (public domain).
• Mova: prag/src/schema.rs, prag/src/feats.rs, prag/data/cues.tsv, prag/src/frames.rs, world/src/talk.rs, kg/src/uk.rs, kg — the Mova knowledge graph.
• The English counterpart: 31. Speech acts.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/uk/31-speech-acts/