I. Родина Кайдашів
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A Ukrainian village comedy retold for B1
Kaidash’s Family Кайдашева сім’я
Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky
This is a retelling of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky’s comic novella in simple modern Ukrainian, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who already handle everyday Ukrainian and want their first full story. In the catalogue it is B1: about 5,000 words in 10 chapters, with 11 words per sentence on average and almost a third of the text in dialogue. Two brothers, their quarrelsome mother and two very different daughters-in-law share one yard in a village on the Ros river, and every pot, hen and pear becomes a reason to fight.
- B1
- 4 974 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A2
Earlier
At A2 you will be stopped often: every chapter is told in the past tense, sentences join two or three clauses, and village words like мотовило, рогач or призьба need a tap.
A2B1
This text
You can read it at B1 if you know the past tense and everyday family words: most sentences carry one clear action, and the quarrels repeat the same words (сміття, горщик, тин) until you no longer need to translate them.
Check this passageB2
With room to spare
At B2 it reads almost without translation, a light warm-up before the complete Ukrainian classics in the catalogue, such as Kotsiubynsky’s Intermezzo.
Start readingThe average sentence has 11 words, close to the complete Ukrainian originals in the catalogue (Kotsiubynsky’s Intermezzo has 9.8, his Дорогою ціною 11.7), but here the length comes from plain narration joined with і, а and бо, not from long descriptions. A word of 9 letters or more appears about once in 17 words (5.8%), against one in eleven in Дорогою ціною (8.8%) and one in nine in Khvylovy’s Я (Романтика) (11.1%); most of them are ordinary verbs such as закричала or перескочив. The old spelling of the 1879 edition and the original’s dialect words are replaced by standard modern Ukrainian, while sayings like старій жабі по коліна stay. About 29% of the words are the characters’ lines. The difficulty is even: each of the 10 chapters has 11-12 words per sentence. Hence B1. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 4 974
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
In the village of Semyhory, among the hills along the Ros, lives Omelko Kaidash: a good cart maker, so devout that he fasts on twelve Fridays a year, and so fond of the tavern that his money never lasts. His wife Marusia once served at the manor and still talks to everyone in honeyed words, until she gets angry. Their elder son Karpo marries sharp-tongued Motria, and soon mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are fighting over the broom, the borscht and a yarn reel. The younger son Lavrin brings home gentle Melashka from a poor neighbouring village, and she too learns what life under Marusia means. A hen laying eggs in the wrong attic, broken pots and a pear tree on the wrong side of the fence keep the quarrel going. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Кайдашева сім’я
VI. Сміття в сінях
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Choose an underlined word.
A saying as a comeback
Karpo answers his father’s threat with a proverb: у палиці два кінці, literally “a stick has two ends”, meaning that whoever hits can be hit back. Notice вас and втопитеся: Ukrainian children traditionally address their parents with the polite ви, even in a quarrel.
Polite form, rude meaning
Візьміть його та з’їжте! is a polite plural imperative: Motria still addresses her mother-in-law with ви, yet the line is a pure insult, “take it and eat it!”. The mother-in-law answers with сховай and віднеси, imperatives for ти. Who says ти and who says ви shows the order of the family.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
With the Reader plan, MovaReader translates the whole sentence where simple words add up to a saying, as in У палиці два кінці: один по мені, а другий по вас, “a stick has two ends: one for me and the other for you”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not the original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling in simple modern Ukrainian of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky’s comic novella Кайдашева сім’я, first published in Lviv in 1879; the plot follows that 1879 Lviv edition as it appears on Wikisource. The language has changed: the long landscape descriptions, the old spelling of that edition and the dialect words are gone, and sentences have 11 words on average, so the 10 chapters, about 5,000 words, come to roughly a tenth of the novella. The main episodes and characters stay in their original order: Kaidash’s drunken Friday, Karpo’s courtship, the yarn reel, the rubbish in the shared hall, Melashka’s pilgrimage to Kyiv, the hen in the attic and the pear tree. A few side scenes, such as a village dispute about taverns, are left out. The complete novella is not in the catalogue.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version of this book on MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears: here that will mostly be words of village life such as мотовило (a reel for winding yarn) or призьба (the clay bench along the outside wall of a house).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short enough to read word by word, so you will need it mostly for sayings and retorts, such as старій жабі по коліна, “the water would only reach an old frog’s knees”, or Motria’s Від кобили чую!, “that’s rich, coming from a mare!”. Without the plan you can translate single words until the daily limit runs out.
How many hours does it take?
About an hour for the whole book, at a learner’s pace with translation of new words, not a native speaker’s. The 10 chapters run from about 380 words (chapter VIII) to about 560 (chapters I and X), so each one fits into a short sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even from start to finish: every chapter averages 11-12 words per sentence. Chapter VIII, about Kaidash’s last days, runs slightly longer at about 12 and has less dialogue; chapters IV, I and VII, full of quarrels and short replies, are the lightest at just under 11.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. After you sign in, the reader remembers where you stopped and which words you opened. The contents on this page also open any of the 10 chapters directly, for example chapter IV, “Мотовило” (The Yarn Reel).