LingoflyHow to read in Ukrainian
Cyrillic from scratch: seven letters you know from Latin, six more that only look familiar. The alphabet has 33 letters. The writing course covers them all. The characters come a few per session — in two or three weeks a shop sign stops being a picture.
Letters you know from Latin
а (a), е, і (i), к, м, о (o), т need no learning: they read the way they look. The lowercase к, м, т look like small capitals K, M, T, and that is exactly what they are.
The vowels stay steady. е is the e of "bet", і (i) is the ee of "see", and о (o) stays a round o even when unstressed.
Six letters that pretend to be Latin
They look like the Latin B, H, P, C, Y, X, but read differently. The eye recognizes the familiar shape and supplies the Latin sound.
That is how the sign МЕТРО (metro) turns into the nonsense METPO. It actually says metro.
в (v) has a second reading. Between a vowel and a consonant, or after a vowel at the end of a word, it becomes a short oo. That is how the second в (v) in вовк (vovk) (wolf) sounds.
Familiar sounds, new shapes
The letters б (b), д, з (z), л, п look unfamiliar, but their sounds are ordinary: in Latin letters they are b, d, z, l, p.
Familiar signs help you remember the shapes. П is the π of math class, the lowercase б (b) is the digit 6, and з (z) is the digit 3. One trap: the lowercase п looks like n but reads p.
| letter | in Latin letters | sound |
|---|---|---|
| Б (b) б (b) | b | b as in "book" |
| Д д | d | d as in "door" |
| З (z) з (z) | z | z as in "zoo" |
| Л л | l | l as in "lamp" |
| П п | p | p as in "pen" |
Г and И do not sound the way you expect
Г looks like the Greek gamma, but it is not a g. It is an h with the voice on: the air comes from the throat while your voice keeps humming. For g there is a rare letter, ґ, and it comes on the last step.
И is not the ee of "see": that is і (i), the one with the dot. И is shorter, with the tongue a little lower, close to the i of "sit".
Mix up и and і (i), and you get another word: дим (dym) is smoke, дім (dim) is a house.
How to read ж (zh), ч, ш, ц and ф
ж (zh), ч, ш and ц read zh, ch, sh and ts. Latin letters need two signs for each of these sounds, while Cyrillic has one letter for each.
The lowercase ш looks like a Latin w, but reads sh. And ф is a plain f.
| letter | sound |
|---|---|
| Ж (zh) ж (zh) | zh as in "measure" |
| Ч ч | ch as in "church" |
| Ш ш | sh as in "ship" |
| Ц ц | ts as in "cats" |
| Ф ф | f as in "fun" |
Й (y) and four letters for two sounds
й (y) is the y of "yes" or "boy", a short glide next to a vowel: мій (mii) (my).
я (ya), ю, є (ye) and ї (yi) write that same y together with a vowel, one letter for two sounds: ya, yu, ye and yi. That is how they sound at the start of a word and after a vowel: яблуко (yabluko) (apple), заєць (zaiets) (hare).
ї (yi) reads yi wherever it stands.
The soft sign and soft consonants
ь has no sound of its own. It softens the consonant before it. The middle of the tongue rises toward the roof of the mouth, as if about to say y. In сіль (sil) (salt), the final л sounds like that.
After a consonant, я (ya), ю and є (ye) do the same. They soften it, and then you hear just a, oo or e: дякую (diakuiu) (thank you) starts with a soft d and an a. After a vowel, ю is yu again.
| where | я (ya) | ю | є (ye) |
|---|---|---|---|
| at the start of a word, after a vowel | ya | yu | ye |
| after a consonant | soft consonant + a | soft consonant + oo | soft consonant + e |
The rare ґ and the double щ
ґ is the g of "go". Few words have it: ґанок (ganok) (porch), ґудзик (gudzyk) (button). You will meet г far more often, and it still reads h.
щ is two sounds in a row, sh and ch, and you hear both: дощ (doshch) (rain) ends in shch.
| letter | sound |
|---|---|
| Ґ ґ | g as in "go" |
| Щ щ | sh and ch in a row |
The apostrophe: a sign without a sound
Sometimes an apostrophe stands between a consonant and я (ya), ю, є (ye) or ї (yi): мʼясо (miaso) (meat), пʼять (piat) (five). It has no sound and does not count as a letter.
The apostrophe separates. The consonant before it stays hard, and the я (ya) after it keeps its full ya: мʼясо (miaso) reads m-yaso.
What order to take the characters in
The writing course is split into 6 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 33 signs in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently asked
How many characters do you need to learn to read in Ukrainian?
33 signs. The writing course covers them all. After that a word stops being a picture — even when its meaning is still unknown.
What to learn first: letters or words?
Letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a “word — translation” card tells you no more than a picture does.
How long does it take to learn to read in Ukrainian?
One step a day — 6 days. That is about recognizing characters, not understanding: you will start reading aloud before you understand what you read.