Declination of surnames in the Ukrainian language: rules

Declination of surnames in the Ukrainian language sometimes introduces into a stupor even those for whom he is native. Are there any clear rules? Fortunately, yes. They need to know not only in order to competently express themselves in oral speech, but also for the execution of all kinds of documents. Sometimes, because of one mistake in the surname, you can wage war on the machine of the bureaucracy for years.

And to what part of the speech do the surnames in the Ukrainian language belong? This is also a question that cannot be answered at once. Because if we talk about such names as Kucheryaviy, Chervona, then at first it seems that these are definitely adjective names. But no, to the great surprise of some, all surnames without exception are nouns. This fact primarily affects their declination.

In general, Ukrainian surnames regarding their origin, grammatical structure can be divided into two groups. The first is those that arose from the names of adjectives. The ending of such nouns very often, though not always, indicates their gender. The second - those that appeared through word formation.

Declension of surnames in the Ukrainian language into -I, -I and -A, -I

They are the full form of adjectives or participles. Usually, some difficulties with changes in the grammatical forms of these surnames are not observed. They are inclined in the same way as the corresponding adjectives or participles. This also applies to the plural (Solodki, Smooth).

A separate subgroup can be distinguished male names ending in -sky, -sky, -sky (Kobilyansky, Zbanatsky, Krivorizhsky) and women's names -ska, -zka, -ska (Kobilyanska, Zbanatska, Krivorizka). Their paradigm is identical to that presented in the table above.

Surnames from the short form of participles and adjectives

Examples: Young, Kuts, Bazhan, Sold. Since they have lost the grammatical signs of adjectives, they vary in the singular and plural cases as the nouns of the second declension. And in this case, the Ukrainian women's names are not changed.

Men's last names on -ov, -iv, -iev, -ev, -v, -in, -in,-

Examples: Gribanov, Ivanishin, Kostin.

Does the surname bow in the Ukrainian language, if it is of non-Slavic origin, but with identical inflections? Yes, but in this case, in the instrumental case, the ending will be not-th, but -th (Chaplin, Darwin).

In the plural in this case there will be the following inflections:

One of the most common mistakes is to put -i instead of -and in the nominative case (Kruglovі, Chubarі, Dronovі), but this is incorrect.

If the form of the female surname in the nominative completely coincides with the masculine one, then it is not inclined: Grishin Oksana, Grishin Oksani, etc.

Declination of surnames in the Ukrainian language at -a, -i

Ukrainian and other Slavic proper names that have endings, like the nouns of the first declension (s, s), change in the cases in the same way as these parts of speech. But one must take into account which group — hard, soft or mixed — they belong to. It depends on the last consonant base of the word.

If it is solid (but not hissing) and the inflection is indicated on the letter as -a, then the group, respectively, is solid. Examples of such surnames: Soroka, Shulga, Skiba, Dziuba, Sereda, Yarema, Makukha, Tsvіtoha.

The declension of surnames in the Ukrainian language also affects the alternation of vowels and consonants (gs, cc, hs). Examples: Makukha - Makusі, Magpie - Sorotsі.

If the word has an ending -i, and the last consonant of the stem is soft, then it belongs to the soft group. Examples of surnames: Gmir, Zhmenya, Teteriya.

Flexion -a and the sounds w, h, w in front of her indicate that the group is mixed. Examples of surnames: Svyatosha, Krecha, Potoroch, Grizh, Pushcha. The letter u is the graphic designation of the sounds w and h, therefore Tarashcha, Pascha also belong to the mixed group.

At first glance, everything looks confusing, but it is not. In order not to be mistaken in any case, you can take the usual noun of the desired group and, by this example, decline the surname, as shown in the tables below.

Surnames ending with -o or final consonant

They vary in cases the same way as nouns of the second declension.

But note: in a vocal case, a surname ending in a consonant has either a zero ending or -y.

Plural

In addition to surnames of the adjective type in -ii, -ii, absolutely all male Ukrainian surnames have the following inflections:

So, knowing the basic rules for the declension of surnames in the Ukrainian language, you can correctly express your thoughts verbally and in writing.