Chapters
- Introduction.
- Some History.
- The Alphabet.
- Two More Sounds.
- Stress.
- Tutorials.
- Typing Ukrainian.
- Handwriting.
- Practice.
random word!
Introduction
When studying Ukrainian, you can't get very far without learning how to read the alphabet, so we'll be starting here. Ukrainian uses its own version of the Cyrillic alphabet and has 33 letters, three of which (Ґ, Є and Ї) are unique to Ukrainian. Although there are a few words for the alphabet in Ukrainian, this site will be using the word Абетка ("abetka"), as it tends to be the most commonly used term today.
This page will, admittedly, not handhold learners through the process of learning the alphabet through the use of dozens of pages. When it comes to learning an alphabet, I believe in diving into it immediately through hands-on exercises. The aim of this page will instead be to help beginners find effective resources to learn the alphabet and its sounds, then move onto reading and handwriting it on their own.
Some History
East Slavic languages, like Ukrainian, use Cyrillic as their writing system because it accurately reflects the sounds used in these languages. After its development, it was adopted by Kievan Rus, a powerful state located in what is now Ukraine between the 9th and 13th centuries, and it spread from there. As it developed, Ukrainian Cyrillic adopted its 3 unique letters: Ґ, Є and Ї.
The history of Ukrainian Cyrillic has not always been smooth, however. During the Soviet era, there were attempts to switch the Ukrainian writing system from Cyrillic to Latin. Additionally, the Soviet authority removed the letter Ґ from the official alphabet in order to bring it closer to Russian, though this obviously failed. Today, Ukrainian Cyrillic (complete with Ґ) continues to play an important role in Ukrainian life and culture.
→ More in-depth articles have been written by: Artem Velychko and Anastasia Holumbiovska
The Alphabet
Before moving on, it seems worthwhile to add in the Ukrainian alphabet as an introduction. Below is a brief table listing each letter in uppercase and lowercase, its name in Ukrainian, its letter equivalent in the Latin alphabet, and an example of how it is pronounced. For reference, you can find the Ukrainian government's guide to transliterating the letters and an automatic converter at this site. Each example word lised in the table leads to recordings of the word by native speakers on Forvo. Please note, however, these types of recordings are not always the best quality or may be cut off early, so it is best to listen to full recordings (such as of sentences / paragraphs) whenever possible.
Without further ado, here is the Ukrainian alphabet:
| Cyrillic | Name | Equivalent | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | а | A | ah as in ананас |
| Б б | бе | B | b as in Бандура |
| В в | ве | V | v as in Вишиванка |
| Г г | ге | H | h as in Гітара |
| Ґ ґ | ґе | G | g as in ґуля |
| Д д | де | D | d as in десь |
| Е е | е | E | eh as in Еспресо |
| Є є | є | Ye / Ie | ye as in моє |
| Ж ж | же | Zh | zh as in Життя |
| З з | зе | Z | z as in Зеленський |
| И и | и | Y | ih as in писати |
| І і | і | I | ee as in Інтернет |
| Ї ї | ї | Yi / I | yee as in Україна |
| Й й | йот | Y / I | y as in Сергій |
| К к | ка | K | k as in Кістка |
| Л л | ел | L | l as in Леся |
| М м | ем | M | m as in Минуле |
| Н н | ен | N | n as in ніколи |
| О о | о | O | o as in Соловейко |
| П п | пе | P | p as in Польща |
| Р р | ер | R | rolled r as in Русалка |
| С с | ес | S | s as in Сосна |
| Т т | те | T | t as in Тарас |
| У у | у | U | oo as in Україна |
| Ф ф | еф | F | f as in Фотографія |
| Х х | ха | Kh | kh as in хворий |
| Ц ц | це | Ts | ts as in цукор |
| Ч ч | че | Ch | ch as in Черепаха |
| Ш ш | ша | Sh | sh as in Школа |
| Щ щ | ща | Shch | shch as in Борщ |
| Ь ь* | м'який знак | ' | ' as in кінь |
| Ю ю | ю | Yu / Iu | yu as in ключ |
| Я я | я | Ya / Ia | ya as in Маяк |
* Ь ь (the Soft Sign): For those unfamiliar with Cyrillic alphabets, the soft sign may be a new concept. This letter does not indicate its own sound, but instead softens the consonant before it. When transliterated, the soft sign is most commonly represented by an apostrophe following the consonant.
→ The letters я / є / ю (ya / ye / yu) also soften the consonants that come before them. When pronouncing these letters immediately after a consonant, you'll find that "y" almost disappears from the sound and softens the preceding consonant.→ Getting used to softening of consonants can take some time, but the key is to keep listening and repeating.
A note on the Apostrophe: While the apostrophe may represent the soft sign in transliteration, it used for another purpose in Ukrainian. It is placed in-between consonants and the letters я / є / ю when the consonants are not meant to be softened and the "y" sound in the letters is meant to be pronounced. For example, when saying the word for "meat" (м'ясо), make sure to pronounce я as "ya" instead of dropping the "y".
Two More Sounds
In addition to the 33 letters listed above, Ukrainian also has 2 cases where two letters work together in order to form one consonant:
1. дж (dzh): This sound is identical to the English "j" in words like John and job. A Ukrainian example is the word джаз (jazz).
2. дз (dz): This sound is similar to the ending of the sentence "He reads." A Ukrainian example is the word дзеркало (mirror).
*There is one exception: If one of these combinations is formed by adding a prefix to a root word, then the individual sounds are retained, not combined. For example, when adding the prefix "під-" to the verb "живити", the pronounciation is "під-живити" (to nourish), not "підживити."
Stress
Ukrainian places stress on a given syllable in words that have two or more syllables. When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced with a bit more energy in order to emphasize it. For example, when you say the word "picture" in English, you may notice that you place a bit more emphasis on the first syllable (PICture). Unfortunately, the patterns behind Ukrainian stress are complex and difficult to grasp, making stress difficult to predict. For this reason, this page does not offer any explanation as to how to keep track of stress.
When learning new words, the best strategy is to listen to recordings when possible and repeat. If you're still not sure about the stress, then the next best resource is the online Ukrainian Dictionary. Once you're on the site, you can look up the target word and identify the stress by looking for which letters are marked in red.
→ Read more about the background of Ukrainian stress over here.
Tutorials
So, maybe you've read through the page so far, but you're still having trouble understanding the Ukrainian alphabet. Perhaps some letters are still confusing, or you don't quite like how this site teaches the letters. Luckily, there are a few more free sites and videos that teach the alphabet clearly and slowly. If this sounds better to you, then I recommend checking out the following resources:
1. Read Ukrainian!: Read Ukrainian! is a multi-unit course that is targeted at beginners. Their first unit focuses entirely on teaching learners the alphabet through a series of informative, short articles, complete with audio clips.
2. Ukrainian Lessons: Ukrainian Lessons offers a few different articles and videos free to the public, and this is one of them. This page breaks down each letter with a video recording of the sound and an explanation for how each letter is used. This resource is good for learners who want all of the details upfront.
3. Speak Ukrainian: Speak Ukrainian is a YouTube channel hosted by a native speaker. She has made a 2-video tutorial on how to pronounce each letter with examples. Those who learn better through YouTube tutorials will likely have an easier time with a source such as this one.
Typing Ukrainian
Finally, you've started picking up the Ukrainian Cyrillic letters and you're ready to start writing! But how do you do this online? Yes, one solution might be using an automatic converter between Latin and Cyrillic, but this can also be pretty tedious. One of the better solutions is to download the Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet to your device.
→ For Microsoft: First, you'll need to download the Ukrainian language pack to your Windows system (tutorial here). You can then switch your keyboard to Ukrainian Cyrillic and switch between keyboards easily (tutorial here).
→ For Mac: Language Geek has written a tutorial on adding a new keyboard to Mac, found here.
→ For Smartphones: Podorozhi has offered a few basic tutorials for switching keyboards over here.
For those using a desktop / laptop to write in Ukrainian, your current physical keyboard may be leaving much to be desired. It's very likely that memorizing the Ukrainian keyboard layout will be easy without being able to see where the letters are, at least at first. In this case, it may be worth investing in keyboard stickers for Ukrainian Cyrillic and adding them to your existing keys. Sites like Key Shorts and Amazon offer these types of sets. Before purchasing, make sure to check that your sticker set is for Ukrainian Cyrillic, not Russian -- the easiest way is to look for unique letters like ї in their product photos.
Handwriting Ukrainian
Those completely new to Cyrillic may be looking at these new letters and asking themselves how it is even possible to write letters like д comfortably by hand. Well, in practice, these letters are not handwritten exactly as they look in print. Instead, when handwriting, Ukrainian uses Cyrillic cursive. Cursive is the preferred method of writing Cyrillic letters quickly and comfortably.
There are a few different resources online for learning cursive. For visual learners, YouTube videos, like those by Alma School and Speak Ukrainian, will be particularly useful as you'll be able to watch how these letters are written. Other sites, like Ukrainian Lessons and Autolingal, have images of the cursive letters available to view.
Some beginners may find it easier to learn to write Ukrainian Cyrillic by copying the letters on lined sheet paper. Luckily, there are a couple of different booklets online that are meant to teach children how to write, but which are also perfectly suitable for older learners. Such booklets are called пропис. A simple yet free booklet that goes through all the letters is available here for download.
If you are a perfectionist and would like to get your handwriting as close to a native's handwriting as possible, it may be useful to look through the Ukrainian Reddit. Learners will post their cursive there from time to time and receive advice on how to improve it by native speakers, so these bits of advice may offer some further guidance.
The important thing to remember, however, is that handwriting is rarely perfect. It is best to make your writing as legible as possible, but if it looks a little odd or shaky, then this is nothing out of the ordinary. After all, is your handwriting perfect in the Latin alphabet? Probably not. So, don't worry about it! :)
Practice Tasks
After completing the above sections, you may want some final tasks to ensure that you have a foundational grasp on Cyrillic. So, this section offers 2 tasks before moving onto the next topic:
1. Writing Your Name: Write your first name + last name in Ukrainian Cyrillic. This is a practical task to complete early on, as foreign names are commonly converted to Cyrillic when writing in Ukrainian. For common first names, you may be able to find the Ukrainian version and corresponding Cyrillic spelling on BehindtheName. Ukrainian Wikipedia and Google will likely be able to fill in the gap for other names.
2. Reading the Random Words: At the top and right side of this page is a random word generator. Click through 10 or so words and try to sound them out without help from Google Translate / other text converters. Once you read the Cyrillic on your own, you can look up the word on Forvo to hear a native speaker pronounce it. Finally, choose 10 or so words from the random word generator and write them out in Cyrillic cursive.
3. Keep Reading Cyrillic: As you continue learning Ukrainian, make sure to continue reading in Cyrillic. Practice will help you read through the alphabet more quickly and easily as time goes on. To help with this goal, this site will only write Ukrainian words in Cyrillic :)