Duolinguists

Ukrainian Alphabet [UK. GRAMMAR PORTAL]

[Originally posted on 09/10/16 on the Duolingo Ukrainian for English speakers forum by TseDanylo]

Вітаю!

Ukrainian is an East Slavic language spoken primarily in Western Ukraine and Central Ukraine by 40 million people making it the third most spoken Slavic language by number of native speakers in the world!

Alphabet

Ukrainian is written in a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet (like Russian, Serbian, etc.). It consists of 33 letters some of which are similar to the Latin ones. Below is all 23 consonants and 10 vowels following this template:

Uppercase Lowercase – Letter Name – Closest English Equivalent

УКРАЇНСЬКА АБЕТКА

А а – ah – Cat
Б б – beh – Book
В в – weh/veh – Vet/When*
Г г – heh – How
Ґ ґ – geh – Gate
Д д – deh – Door
Е е – eh – Red
Є є – yeh – Yes
Ж ж – zheh – Measure
З з – zeh – Zoo
И и – ih – PIt (but longer)
І і – ee – Meet
Ї ї – yih – Year (but longer
Й й – yot – Yes
К к – kah – Couch
Л л – el – Loose
М м – em – Moose
Н н – en – No
О о – oh – Goat
П п – peh – Put
Р р – er – Like the thrilled r in Spanish or Italian
С с – es – Soon
Т т -te – Take
У у – oo – Do
Ф ф – ef – Forget
Х х – kha – ch in the Scottisch “loch“
Ц ц – tse – Cats
Ч ч – cheh – Chase
Ш ш – shah – Shy
Щ щ – shcha – Strong/Fish ch*urch
ь -myakih znak (м’який знак) – Softens the previous consonant (more below)
Ю ю – yoo – You
Я я – yah – Yard
‘ – apostrof (апостроф) – Strengthens the following vowel (more below)

В can be pronounced the initial sound at the start of when or in vet* but most people ignore this rule and pronounce it like a V. It is usually pronounced the W at the start of a word, before of a consonant or at the end of a word.

М’який знак

The м’який знак (ь) makes some consonants sound softer, as if there was a y sound before it (even though there isn’t). So below will be a pronunciation exercise to help you learn the difference. But first, here is the list of consonants that have a different sound after the м’який знак.

Нн
Тт
Дд
Цц
Дз дз (pronounced like Meds, not a letter but still has a unique sound)
Сс
Зз
Лл
Рр

Pronuncation Exercise

Try saying these phonetic English sounds and compare the way your tongue goes in each one. (Note the r is a thrill like Spanish unlike English). Also, try to pronounce them as one syllable, if you don’t know how; Put your thumb on your chin and try to make your your chin only goes down once.

Nah – Nyah
Tah – Tyah
Dah – Dyah
Tsah – Tsyah
Dzah – Dzyah
Sah – Syah
Zah – Zyah
Lah – Lyah
Rah – Ryah

The first one is how you pronounce the initial sound followed by -а (на), the second (minus the -ah) is what it sounds like after м’який знак (нь)

Апостроф

The апосроф’ (apostrophe), emphasises/stresses the vowel after it and stops softing of consonants (like the acute á accent in Spanish and the hard sign in Russian combined). Here are some examples:

М’ясо (meat) – pronounced: mYAHsoh Комп’ютер (computer) – pronounced: komPYOOter