Ukrainian
Ukrainian — Indo-European family, between 33 and 41 million speakers — the count depends on how you ask (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: Cyrillic, 33 letters — a new alphabet to learn, but a fully phonetic one.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge — tell us and we will fix it.
- →Ukrainian alphabetAll letters with sound
- →Ukrainian wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- привітhiAn easy start: privit sounds friendly and informal, exactly like "hi". Save it for people you already know.
- добрий деньgood dayThe neutral, polite greeting for strangers, shops and offices. Literally "good day" — dobyi den has no surprises in it.
- доброго ранкуgood morningLiterally "of good morning" — a wish in the "of" form, like wishing someone "a good morning's worth". Ranku is morning.
- дякуюthank youFrom diakuvaty, "to thank". The intensifier is duzhe diakuiu — "thank you very much" — literally "very much I thank".
- будь ласкаplease (polite)Literally "be kindness" — bud "be" plus laska "kindness". Works both in a request and as the reply to diakuiu, like "you are welcome".
- як справи?how are you?Literally "how are the affairs?" — sprava is "matter, business". With a stranger, add the polite you: yak u vas spravy?
- до побаченняgoodbyeLiterally "until seeing" — do "until" plus pobachennia "seeing". The formal, safe goodbye for any stranger.
- бувайbyeFrom buvaty, "to be, hang around" — literally "carry on being". Casual, for friends; with strangers use do pobachennia.
About the language
| Native name | Українська · ukrainska |
| Official in | Ukraine |
| Also spoken in | Poland, Canada, the USA, Brazil and Moldova |
| How many speakers | between 33 and 41 million speakers — the count depends on how you ask (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Indo-European family, East Slavic group |
| Writing | Cyrillic, 33 letters — a new alphabet to learn, but a fully phonetic one |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: seven cases, three genders, and consonants that come in hard and soft pairs.
Easy: spelling matches pronunciation almost everywhere, and stress is marked in dictionaries.
What Russian speakers most often take it up for: family, friends and work in Ukraine, paperwork, songs and culture.
Curiosities in Ukrainian
In 1876 the Ems Ukaz banned printing Ukrainian books and importing them from abroad, and limited theatre productions to everyday scenes. For half a century the language lived mostly orally — and survived all the same: the modern norm rests on writers of the mid-nineteenth century, older than the ban itself.
Alexander II’s Ems Ukaz, 1876; the article “Ukrainian language” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the rarer its repetitions should be. To hold it for a week, review every day; to hold it for a year, about once a month.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20% of the target interval on a horizon of weeks, and 5–10% on a horizon of a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- Pay someone to study and they study less, not more. Praise and a clear explanation of their mistakes do the opposite — they help.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. Material reward: d = −0.40 for taking part, −0.36 for finishing. Praise and feedback: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Ukrainian?
With the first everyday words and rescue phrases: the script is already familiar to you.
How many people speak it in Ukrainian?
Between 33 and 41 million speakers — the count depends on how you ask — an estimate from Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Ukrainian hard?
Seven cases, three genders, and consonants that come in hard and soft pairs. At the same time, spelling matches pronunciation almost everywhere, and stress is marked in dictionaries.
Where is it spoken in Ukrainian?
An official language in: Ukraine. Noticeable communities: Poland, Canada, the USA, Brazil and Moldova.
Is Ukrainian in Duolingo?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Duolingo’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Ukrainian in full: 3964 words, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.
Is Ukrainian in Ling?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Ling’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Ukrainian in full: 3964 words, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.