42 Ukrainian: A Comprehensive Grammar 1.2 A FEW NOTES ON PROBLEM AREAS IN SPELLING 1.2.1 о AND e AFTER HUSHERS AND [j] Both are possible in Ukrainian. One tends to find e before a soft or historically soft consonant, and о before a historically hard consonant or before a syllable with [a, d, u, i]: женитися - жонатий to marry - married (of a man) четверо - чотири four копієчка - копійок copeck (N.sg. of dim. - G.pl. of non-dim.) книжок of the books дочок of the daughters бджола bee пшоно millet чого of what щока cheek його him, it знайомий friend, acquaintance However, analogy may intervene: на вечорі - вечора/вечору evening (вечір) свіжості - молодості freshness - youth пишемо - пишете write печений/спечено - зроблений/зроблено baked - done Note: грошовий 'money' (adjective), бойовий 'fighting' The vowel e is retained in the suffixes -ечк-, -енк(о) and certain others, and also in ancient bookish and borrowed words: дощечка small board Шевченко (family name) печера cave жертва victim шеф chief чемпіон champion Other spellings are established by convention or tradition: червоний red чекати to wait шепотіти to whisper щедрий generous Note particularly the convention of e in nominal endings, but о in pronominal and adjectival ones: станцією - нашою - колишньою station - our - erstwhile/former (l.sg. f.) 1.2.2 VELARS PLUS [і, і] [i] occurs, both in the orthography and pronunciation, after velars in Ukrainian in instances of alternation with [о, є] (here the velar is pronounced either soft or hard) and in the nominative-accusative plural of adjectives and pronouns. Thus:
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