LingoflyЩ щ — shcha
«shcha» is a consonant of the Ukrainian script, read as “sh and ch in a row”. Two sounds in a row, sh and then ch, and you hear both: borshch ends with them. For example, in the word “борщ” (borshch) — borscht. The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in total. Never one long sh: this letter always gives sh followed by ch. It appears, for example, in the word “ще один” (shche odyn) — one more.
In short
| Character | Щ щ |
| Name | shcha |
| Sound | sh and ch in a row |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 30th of 33, its neighbours in the course are ш and ь, appears in 80 words of this site.
How to type Щ щ
- 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+0449 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 0449.
- Unicode code points: щ — U+0449, Щ — U+0429. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Two sounds in a row, sh and then ch, and you hear both: borshch ends with them
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.
- борщ (borshch)borscht
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 «shcha» it is “sh and ch in a row”, as in the word “борщ” (borshch)), 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 щ read?
As “sh and ch in a row” — it is a consonant of the Ukrainian script. Two sounds in a row, sh and then ch, and you hear both: borshch ends with them. For example, in the word “борщ” (borshch) — borscht.
What is the letter щ called?
Shcha. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Ukrainian script: it is called “shcha” and reads as “sh and ch in a row”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.