LingoflyГ г — he
«he» is a consonant of the Ukrainian script, read as “h with the voice on”. An h said with the voice on: keep humming while the air flows out of the throat. Never the g of "go". For example, in the word “гроші” (hroshi) — money. The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in total. Looks like the Greek gamma, but it is never a g. The g of "go" has a rare letter of its own, the same shape with a small hook on top.
In short
| Character | Г г |
| Name | he |
| Sound | h with the voice on |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 4th of 33, its neighbours in the course are в (v) and ґ, appears in 486 words of this site.
How to type Г г
- On a phone: add the Ukrainian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0433 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0433.
- Unicode code points: г — U+0433, Г — U+0413. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
An h said with the voice on: keep humming while the air flows out of the throat. Never the g of "go"
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.
- гроші (hroshi)money
The character in the “two letters that surprise” group
г looks like the Greek gamma, but it is an h with the voice on, never a g. щ is two sounds in a row: sh and then 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 “h with the voice on”, as in the word “гроші” (hroshi)), 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 “h with the voice on” — it is a consonant of the Ukrainian script. An h said with the voice on: keep humming while the air flows out of the throat. Never the g of "go". For example, in the word “гроші” (hroshi) — 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 “h with the voice on”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can г be confused with?
Looks like the Greek gamma, but it is never a g. The g of "go" has a rare letter of its own, the same shape with a small hook on top. 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.