How to read and say Ukrainian

Ukrainian pronunciation is similar to Russian but not equal.

• Ukrainian has і ґ ї є; Russian not.
• Russian has ё э ъ; vice versa.
• Russian uses г for 'g'; but Ukrainian it is for 'ɦ' (=voiced h). (ґ is for 'g' in Ukrainian.)

Vowels

Аа

"ah" like "arrive" if stressed; "u" like hut if unstressed.

Яя

"Ya" like the 'ya' in "yard" ( middle or end of word 'ia' as in "mia")

Ее

like 'e' in "Lenin" if stressed; "ih" like the 'i' in "bit" if unstressed. (IPA: ɛ)

Єє

like 'ye' in "yet" ( middle or end of word 'ie' as in "miedo") Rarely used after a consonant. (IPA: jɛ)

Ии

"ih" like 'i' in "bit" if stressed; 'e' in "Lenin" if unstressed. (IPA: ɪ)

Іі

like 'ee' in "seen" if stressed; "ih" like 'i' in "bit" if unstressed. (IPA: i)

Її

"yee" like in "Yield" (IPA: ji)

Уу

like 'oo' in "hoop"

Юю

'yu' like you ( middle or end of word 'iu' as in "viuda")

Оо

like "o" in obey if stressed- but never spoken as "ou"; the unstressed "o" is less reduced than it is in Russian. If unstressed, pronounced it like the 'oo' in "hoop".

Consonants

Бб

'b' as in "bite"

Вв

'v' as in "violin"

Гг

'h' as in "hello"; [usually aspirated] sometimes pronounced like 'g' as in 'go'. (IPA: ɦ)

Ґґ

'g' as in "go"; VERY rarely used (IPA: g)

Дд

'd' as in "do"

Жж

'zh' as in "pleasure" (IPA: ʐ)

Зз

'z' as in "zone"

Кк

'c' as in "cat"

Лл

'l' as in "love"

Мм

'm' as in "mother"

Нн

'n' as in "nice"

Пп

'p' as in "piano"

Рр

'r' is always rolled like Spanish or Scottish (IPA: r)

Сс

's' as in "sing"

Тт

't' as in "top"

Фф

'f' as in "fling"

Хх

Hard "H". Tough for English speakers. Like Scottish "loch or German "Bach". (IPA: x)

Цц

'ts' as in "sits"

Чч

'ch' as in "chip" (IPA: tʃ)

Шш

'sh' as in "shut" (IPA: ʂ)

Щщ

'shch'. Tough for English speakers. Hard 'sh'. Halfway between 'sh' and 'ch'. Say: "fresh cheese" or "fish chowder". (IPA: ʂtʂ)

Йй

"y", as in boy (IPA: j)

Unstress

In unstress syllables, "а е о у" will change to 'uh, e, aw, oo' (IPA: ɐ e o ʊ). Comare гай (hay) and гарма́та (huh-MAH-tuh).

Consonant sign

Letter " ь "and " ’ " are not the separate letters. They represent ʲ (like 'i' in 'lieu') and the second one shows a separation between two 'j', like in м'я́со (m-YA-saw).

Stress

Unlike Russian, Ukrainian is written as it is pronounced but stress is very unpredictable that stressing the wrong syllable (or even missing a soft/hard sign) can lead to misinterpretation; for that reason, almost every book and dictionary concerning Ukrainian put an accent on the tonic syllable. Read the phrases carefully, and then try to re-write them by putting an accent mark. The same rule applies for others that use the Cyrillic script such as Russian, Belarusian and Bulgarian.

Unfortunately, stress in Ukrainian is not fixed; The stress can fall anywhere within a word, either at the beginning, end or in the middle of a particular word. The good news is that, in most learning material for Ukrainian, the stress is always indicated by a diacritic mark above a vowel. Note that in all forms of Ukrainian media, either newspapers, books, etc. the diacritic never appears. However, they may appear on the names of places and people where necessary. The good news is that unlike Russian, Ukrainian does not have vowel reduction, so vowels are generally pronounced the same way regardless of whether they are stressed.

Example: Украї́на (ook-ra-YEE-na) Ukraine