Ukrainian map of Russian and Ukrainian speaking areas

Spoken Ukrainian

(see map):

  • Central and Western Ukraine Ukrainian writing(light blue)

Spoken Russian

  • Some Eastern provinces (dark blue)
  • Crimea (dark blue)

Written Ukrainian

Uses the Cyrillic script

Ukrainian is quite close to Russian language.

Spoken Ukrainian

Russian is widely understood, especially in the East and in the Crimea where there are large Russian communities. Often Russian is spoken in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Although in the West, Ukrainian language is dominant and speaking Russian here may cause offence as they are certainly more nationalistic in the West..

Written Ukrainian

Although similar to Russian, some important words are different and even similar to Polish, eg: 'yes' in Russian is 'da', but in Ukrainian 'tak'. Other words and phrases such as 'thank you', 'excuse me' or 'how much is...? are very different from Russian.

Written Ukrainian and Cyrilic script

This is strongly influenced from Russia with only some letters in the Ukrainian alphabet being different. It has 33 letters, the same number as Russian. There is no Latin script version of Ukrainian.

Ukrainian Cyrillic Alphabet (33 letters)

Latin to Cyrillic Alphabet

a
   a      A  

b
   б      Б  

c
   ц      Ц  

č with caron
   ч      Ч  

d
   д      Д  

e
   е      Е  

f
   ф      Ф  

g
   г      Г  

h
   г      Г  

i
   и      И  

j
   й      Й  

ja
   я      Я  

je
           

ji
   ï      Ï  

ju
   ю      Ю  

k
   к      К  

l
   л      Л  

m
   м      М  

n
   н      Н  

o
   о      О  

p
   п      П  

r
   p      P  

s
   с      С  

š with caron
   ш      Ш  

š with caron and t
   шt      Шt  

t
   т      Т  

u
   у      У  

v
   в      В  

x
   х      Х  

z
   э      Э  

ž with caron
   ж      Ж  

'
   ь      Ь  

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Ukrainian Translation sample:

Всі люди народжуються вільними і рівними у своїй гідності та правах. Вони наділені розумом і совістю і повинні діяти у відношенні один до одного в дусі братерства.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Ukrainian Speaking countries

Ukraine.

Indo-European Language group

European language groups

Indo-European > Slavic > Eastern

Difficulty in learning Ukrainian as a native English speaker

The Defense Language Institute categorizes Ukrainian as difficult (level 3, of 4 levels)

Ukrainian letter writing samples

  • Letter (formal)
  • Letter (informal)