Г г — he
«he» is a consonant of Ukrainian, the “Ukrainian Cyrillic” script, read as “a breathy h, as in "a-ha"”. A breathy, humming h — the h of a satisfied "a-ha", voiced and gargled in the throat, never a hard g. For example, in the word “гроші” — money. The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in total. This is not a g at all, whatever its shape suggests: it is a breathy voiced h. The hard g of "go" is a different, rare letter. It appears, for example, in the word “доброго ранку” — good morning.
In short
| Character | Г г |
| Name | he |
| Sound | a breathy h, as in "a-ha" |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 4th of 33, its neighbours in the course are в and ґ, appears in 486 words of this site.
How it sounds
A breathy, humming h — the h of a satisfied "a-ha", voiced and gargled in the throat, never a hard g
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- грошіmoney
The character in the “two familiar shapes that lie” group
The letters are letters you know; the sounds are not. The h-looking letter is a breathy voiced sound with no English twin, while the hard g of "go" hides behind a rare letter of its own. And the shch letter is always two sounds: sh plus ch.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «he» it is “a breathy h, as in "a-ha"”, as in the word “гроші”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 33 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Ukrainian character г read?
As “a breathy h, as in "a-ha"” — it is a consonant of the “Ukrainian Cyrillic” script. A breathy, humming h — the h of a satisfied "a-ha", voiced and gargled in the throat, never a hard g. For example, in the word “гроші” — money.
What is the letter г called?
He. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Ukrainian script: it is called “he” and reads as “a breathy h, as in "a-ha"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can г be confused with?
This is not a g at all, whatever its shape suggests: it is a breathy voiced h. The hard g of "go" is a different, rare letter. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.