# Ukrainian: Today I must not fear



## mateo19

Hello foreros!

I would like to know how to say, "Today I must not fear".
I am translating it from Slovak into Ukrainian, so the original is:

Dnes sa nemusím bať.

Thank you very much! 

PS. Maybe a better word order is "Dnes nemusím sa bať"?


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## Jana337

I can't help with the Ukrainian translation but the word order of the Slovak sentence is correct. Your suggestion sounds strange; it could survive in lyrics but not in natural speech.

By the way, nemusím is needn't.


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## slavic_one

mateo19 said:


> Hello foreros!
> 
> I would like to know how to say, "Today I must not fear".
> I am translating it from Slovak into Ukrainian, so the original is:
> 
> Dnes sa nemusím báť.
> 
> Thank you very much!
> 
> PS. Maybe a better word order is "Dnes nemusím sa báť"?



"Dnes nemusím sa báť" really sounds poetic. I'm pretty sure the word order that would also do is "Nemusím sa báť dnes".
Reminds me of one Tublatanka's song 
Ale bohužiaľ tiež ti nemôžem pomôcť preložiť to do ukrajinčine, prepač.



			
				Jana337 said:
			
		

> By the way, nemusím is needn't.



As far as I know, "nemusieť" can be "mustn't".


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## mateo19

Ahoj, Jano!

Do you mean that in everyday speech I should just say, "Nebojím sa dnes"?
For me, there is a big difference between "I must not fear" and "I do not fear".

Both of you are right though, I do mean for this to be a poetic use.  I love Slovak music and two extremely popular songs have such lyrics:  "Dnes" by Tublatanka and "Držím Ti Miesto" by TEAM (Pavol Habera).  They say respectively, "Dnes sa nemusím báť, že sa utopím v černom bahne..." and "Držím ti miesto, teraz už vieš to, nemusíš sa báť".

In any event, I will wait until a Ukrainian speaker can help me render "Dnes sa nemusím báť".  Thank you for the comments, though, as always, and please don't hesitate in keeping them coming.  Take care!


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## slavic_one

Sorry for I'm still out-of-topic, but "nebojím sa" and "nemusím sa báť" have different meaning, as you noticed already, same as in English. But I think Jana just wanted to say that "Dnes nemusím sa báť" sounds strange, on which I agreed.
Now I'm leaving you to Ukrainian team, good luck!


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## cyanista

My attempt:

Сьогодні менi не можна боятися. - Today I must not fear.

Сьогодні менi не треба боятися. - Today I need not fear.

Mind you, I actually don't speak Ukrainian but I looked up the words in a dictionary and built the phrase like I would in Belarusian. So I'm 90% sure.


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## Natabka

Ok, the Ukrainian speaker has turned up, but the one that has a very scarce knowledge of Slovak 

My suggestion is:
Dnes sa nemusím bať. - Сьогодні я не повин*ен*/пови*нна* боятися. (masculine/feminine)

P.S. Cyanista has just written:

Сьогодні менi не можна боятися. - I'd say in English it would be more like "Today I cannot fear, I am not allowed to fear."

Look at the synonyms of *I must *in Ukrainian: (in masculine)

Я повинен
Я мушу (мусити-to must, similar spelling, isn't it?)
Я маю (I have to)

I think the first two are both quite suitable in your context, Matteo. Choose the one that rhymes better 
Take care!


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## winpoj

slavic_one said:


> As far as I know, "nemusieť" can be "mustn't".



No, No, NO!


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## slavic_one

winpoj said:


> No, No, NO!



Why, Why, WHY?!


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## winpoj

Well, Slavic, you must know that in language it's often impossible to give reasons for a particular usage. It's simply not that way.
I came in just to prevent you from misleading a learner. I don't know how well you know Slovak but you have a record here of giving incorrect advice about it. So it's perhaps up to you to substantiate your claim.
Let's also see what others might have to say about this.


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## slavic_one

I don't know, I always tought musieť means must.
Btw, go to www.slovnik.zoznam.sk and enter nemusieť and you'll get mustn't and needn't.
And in my Slovak-Croatian dictionary, for musieť it says only morati, which means must. Or maybe it's my lack of English, but I don't think so.


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## mateo19

Дякую, Натабко, for coming to the rescue!  Also thank you to Cyanista! 

Slavic One, I also use that dictionary, at zoznam.sk, and I have personally found it to be mostly helpful. . . Although it is not the best dictionary out there.  I have yet to buy a good slovník slovenského jazyka.  Take care, everyone!


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## jazyk

If Slovak is like Czech here, musieť means must and nemusieť means needn't.

In Czech this is how it works:
Musím dokončit domácí úkol. - I must/have to finish my homework. - I have an obligation.
Nemusím dokončit domácí úkol. - I don't need to/needn't finish my homework. - It's not necessary. 
Nesmím dokončit domácí úkol. - I mustn't finish my homework. - It's a prohibition.


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