II. Лисичка під вікном
, . . . , . .
. .
— , , — .
— , — .
. . . ! ! .
:
— . . . .
. . , ... !
Four folk tales retold for A1
The Cat and the Rooster and Other Tales Котик і Півник та інші казки
Ukrainian folk tales
This is not an original text but MovaReader’s own retelling, in simple Ukrainian, of four folk tales from Баю-баю (“Hush-a-bye”), a reader for small children compiled by O. Bilousenko and published in Kyiv in 1918: the cat and the rooster who share a hut while a fox hunts the rooster, the fox and the wolf (the sledge and the fishing through the ice), the fox who loses her tail, and the old man’s daughter and the old woman’s daughter. It is for readers who are just starting Ukrainian: about 3,800 words in 8 short chapters, told in the present tense, with sentences of 5 words on average and lots of dialogue.
- A1
- 3 777 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
This text
You can manage it at A1 if you know the present tense and a few hundred everyday words: the tales move by repetition, such as the rooster’s Котик не велів! (“The cat told me not to!”) and the girl’s four meetings in the forest, each with the same request, почисти мене (“clean me”).
Check this passageA2
With room to spare
At A2 the tales read almost without translation: good for building speed and for set phrases Ukrainians know from childhood, such as лисичко, сестричко and вовчику, братику (“little fox, little sister”, “little wolf, little brother”), the way the fox and the wolf greet each other in Ukrainian tales.
Start readingThe average sentence has 5 words (3,777 words in 699 sentences), and 155 of the 316 paragraphs are lines of dialogue. The narration stays in the present tense (живуть, каже, біжить); past forms such as врятував (saved) or привезла (brought) appear mostly in what the characters say. Words of 9 letters or more make up 1.7% of the text, the most frequent being приходить (comes) and сердиться (gets angry). That is the same share as in Коник-стрибунець та інші байки (1.7%) and below Сірко та інші казки (2.2%) and Рукавичка та інші казки (3.6%), all A1 books with about 5 words per sentence, while the A2 adaptation Лис Микита, where a fox also tricks a wolf, has sentences about twice as long. The difficulty is nearly even: seven chapters average 5.0 to 5.8 words per sentence, and only VI. Куца лисиця reaches 6.5. Hence A1. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 3 777
- words
- 5
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
A cat and a rooster share a little hut by the forest: the cat plays the fiddle and goes out for food, the rooster sings and minds the house, with strict orders to open the door to no one. A red fox who loves chicken starts calling at the window with promises of golden wheat. In the second tale a fox trades a stolen poppy-seed pie for a bull calf, builds a sledge and gives a lift to a wolf who swears he will put down only one paw. A fox who has lost her tail to a greyhound tries to talk other animals into losing theirs. And an old man’s daughter, sent from home because her stepmother wants her gone, meets an apple tree, a well, a dog and a stove in the forest, and each of them asks her for help. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Котик і Півник та інші казки
IV. Лисичка і вовк
.
— , , !
— , , !
— ?
— .
— , ! .
— ? . .
— , . .
— , .
, . :
— , .
— , , !
— , .
— , .
, . . !
— ! — . — !
— , , — . — .
Choose an underlined word.
Present form, future meaning: поклюю, сховаюся
Півник says Піду я трошки поклюю and Я швидко сховаюся. These look like present tense, but поклювати and сховатися are perfective verbs, and perfective verbs have no present: their personal forms mean the future, “I’ll peck a little”, “I’ll hide”. The narrator, telling what happens now, uses the imperfective клює (“he pecks”).
Calling someone: лисичко, вовчику
The fox and the wolf greet each other with лисичко, сестричко and вовчику, братику. This is the vocative case, used whenever someone is addressed: лисичка becomes лисичко, вовчик becomes вовчику. The diminutive endings (-ичка, -чик) make the greeting sound sweet, which is part of the joke: neither animal means it.
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
Reader translates the whole sentence where simple words make an idiom, as in Ще чого!, the old woman’s daughter’s answer to the apple tree that asks for help: “As if!” (literally “what else!”).
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
An adaptation, not an original text. It is MovaReader’s own retelling in simple modern Ukrainian of four anonymous folk tales, all from Баю-баю (“Hush-a-bye”), a reader for small children compiled by O. Bilousenko, Kyiv: Krynytsia, 1918: Котик і півник, Лисичка-сестричка і вовк-панібрат (here IV. Лисичка і вовк and V. Вовк ловить рибу), Куца лисиця and Дідова дочка й бабина дочка (here VII and VIII). The selection of tales is the catalogue’s own. They were read on Wikisource in that edition’s spelling of 1918 (одчини for відчини, ззім for з’їм, завязав without an apostrophe). What changed: the spelling and the dialect forms became standard modern Ukrainian, the narration moved to the present tense, the rhymed songs became short plain lines, and scenes were filled out with dialogue that follows the source. A few details were simplified: the fish traders (чумаки) are just люди (people), the wine in the well is honey, and the church bread in the stove is white bread. The source texts themselves are not in the catalogue.
Is there an audiobook?
No, there is no audio version of these tales on MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears: here that will often be words of village life, such as корито (a wooden trough) or кочерги (oven pokers).
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes: whole-sentence translation comes with the Reader plan. Sentences here average 5 words, so you will need it less for their length than for lines such as Котик не велів!, the rooster’s answer to the fox, where велів is a bookish verb for “ordered”: “The cat told me not to!”. 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 the pace of someone who still translates new words, not a native speaker’s. The 8 chapters run from about 210 to 620 words: the cat and the rooster take three chapters, the fox and the wolf two, the fox without a tail one, and the two daughters two, so any chapter fits into a short sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is nearly even. Seven chapters average between 5.0 and 5.8 words per sentence; VI. Куца лисиця is a little denser, with 6.5 words per sentence and 3.7% long words (наздогнав, відкусимо). The lightest in vocabulary is VII. Дідова дочка, where long words are only 0.8%.
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 8 chapters directly, for example chapter VI, Куца лисиця.