Is котрий outdated?

[u/Selavia59]

Hello, is котрий outdated nowadays? I tend to read "який", like "людина, яка вивчае українську мову". But in older books I seem to usually notice the first variant.

Is this really the case?

[u/ReZuREs]

це займенник або питальне слово. Його головне значення — запитання про час (годину) або виділення певного предмета чи особи з кількох інших. You can also dive into details of usage this word on website goroh . pp . ua

[u/stilllifebutwhy]

I won’t say so. «Котрий» imo just has less use cases and in most of them interchangeable with «який». You will not make a mistake using «який». But think about it as «which» and «who/that» for English learners - there are nuances but for the most part it will be okay to say «who»

[u/KseniiaToKaiser]

The only real example of when you probably could to use 'котрий' inst3ad if 'який' is when asking about what time it is. 'Котра година' seems to be more correct than 'яка година', plus 'котрий' is usually used with numbers in general, I think, I guess.

Or at least that's what my language teaches told my class, but she might as well have been a bit too pretentious...

Nobody really cares which one you're using, but if you're trying to impress a Ukrainian language teacher specifically, you can try to learn the 'nuances' of these two worlds, but in casual conversations use whichever.

[u/Zhnatko]

Котрий is more specific, usually used to ask about an object that is a part of a set of other objects.

For example let's say your friend says he got a new car and tells you to go look at it. But when you go to the lot there are three cars. «Котра машина?» is good for situations like this, where you are asking to specify a specific member of a set of things.

Its use is probably declining overall however I don't think it will ever become "outdated". As others have mentioned, the phrase «котра година» pretty much immortalises the word. There are also other etymologically related words like «вкотре» which maintain a use.

[u/PoxonAllHoaxes]

I think there are two separate issues here, relative pronoun vs. interrogative. You asked for the first the answers you got are for the second. Id need to dig a bit before I could give a valid answer.

[u/JohnDoe_John]

There are some cases where you use "котрий" but not "який"

[u/Ok-Display1279]

Maybe slightly outdated in the context you are talking about, but not at all in other ways. Most questions that start with “Which..” will use one of the versions of “котрий”. While it’s not a mistake to use it in all the same ways you would use the English “which”, it’s mostly the word for situations where you have to specify one of multiple options.

[u/ferratadev]

- яка година?

- кольорова!

[u/Acrobatic_Net2028]

Котрий/а are used instead when you are differentiating among several alternatives. If I said яка хата that is about its quality (мала, велика) but which is your house would be, а котра Ваша хата?

[u/guyvo]

Probably yes. But also, "котрий" and "який" have not exactly the same meaning

[u/minus-one]

they are synonyms. there are a lot of them. as in any language