Mastering Essential Ukrainian Vocabulary at B1 Level

At the B1 level of Ukrainian language learning, the focus is on building intermediate proficiency including the ability to express thoughts fluently, understand interlocutors, use oral and written language appropriately, and handle everyday and professional communicative situations.

While there is no single definitive list of “all the most important words” at B1 level, key areas of vocabulary development typically include:

• Everyday thematic vocabulary relevant for communication: family, work, transportation, shopping, health, education, and common social interactions.
• Professional or specialized terminology relevant to the learner’s field if applicable (e.g., for medical or technical students).
• Phrases and expressions for common speech acts: greetings, requests, apologies, gratitude, and sharing opinions.
• Basic and intermediate lexical sets to describe time, locations, directions, quantities, emotions, and abstract ideas.
• Word forms and grammatical structures enabling understanding and expressing cause, purpose, condition, sequence, and comparison.

According to research and textbooks designed specifically for Ukrainian as a foreign language at the B1 level, vocabulary and grammar are presented in the context of real communicative needs, supported by exercises that develop reading, speaking, listening, and writing. ^{1, 4, 5}

Additionally, textbooks such as the “Yabluko” series emphasize integrating vocabulary with cultural content, history, and traditions to enrich communicative competence at the B1 level. ⁴

For a concrete vocabulary list, B1 learners should focus on:

• Core verbs related to daily activities and events.
• Common nouns in themes like transport, places, professions.
• Adjectives describing appearance, qualities, and emotions.
• Pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions for sentence building.
• Set phrases typical of social and professional communication.

Unfortunately, none of the available sources provide a comprehensive ranked list of words, but they recommend a thematic, functional, and communicative approach to vocabulary acquisition at B1. For detailed word lists, learners can follow structured textbooks that comply with standardized requirements for Ukrainian foreign language teaching. ^{5, 4}

If you want, I can also help find or prepare a sample vocabulary list or thematic word sets appropriate for B1 learners.

References

• INTERRELATED TEACHING OF READING AND SPEAKING IN THE PROCESS OF TEACHING THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (IN THE TEACHING MATERIALS OF THE MANUAL «UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE». LEVEL B1)

• LEARNING UKRAINIAN ACCENT BY FOREIGNS (on the example of the story “Why” by Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska)

• LEARNING THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE BY FOREIGN MEDICAL STUDENTS

• SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT “I WILL LOVE UKRAINIAN CULTURE, OH!” (A review of the textbook: Nataliia Bartkiv, Kseniia Borodin. Yabluko: A Textbook of Ukrainian as a Foreign Language (Intermediate Level) Lviv: Ukrainian Catholic University Press, 2022. 304 p.)

• DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE COMPETENCE AMONG FOREIGN STUDENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AT HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF UKRAINE

• DIDACTIC POTENTIAL OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

• THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY ISSUES ON THE PAGES OF THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL “STUDIA UCRAINICA VARSOVIENSIA” (2013–2022: DEDICATED TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY)

• ENCODE CHILDREN IN UKRAINIAN

• PECULIARITIES OF THIRD GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEECH DEVELOPMENT AT UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE LESSONS IN THE PROCESS OF MORPHEMIC AND WORD-FORMING COMPETENCES FORMATION

• SUBJECT OF TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS IN THE COURSE OF UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

• FEATURES OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION BY MEANS OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE (on the example of official-business, epistolary and conversational-functional styles)

• “PYSMONAVTYKA” BY TETIANA STUS AS A COURSE OF LITERARY CREATIVITY FOR CHILDREN

• Representation of the formal structure of the adverbial equivalents of the word with prepositional-case forms

• BORROWINGS IN THE LEXICON OF THE MODERN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

• Some properties of the Ukrainian writing system

• RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY OF EVERYDAY LANGUAGE OF THE ORTHODOX BELIEVERS OF UKRAINE

• New Bulgarian, Polish, and Ukrainian phraseology and language corpora

• LEXICOGRAPHICAL STUDIES ON THE SOUTHWESTERN DIALECTS OF THE UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE