Phabetia

The Ukrainian alphabet

Ukrainian is written in a 33-letter variant of Cyrillic. It shares most of them with Russian, so anyone who already reads Russian recognises almost everything at first sight; and anyone who starts with Ukrainian gets most of Russian for free.

What changes fits in one hand. Four letters Russian does not have: Ґ, Є, І and Ї, the last one with its unmistakable diaeresis. And three that exist in both alphabets but sound different: Г is a breathy h rather than a g, Е is a plain e rather than ye, and И is read like the Russian ы. In exchange, Ё, Ъ, Ы and Э disappear.

Phabetia makes the most of it: each letter's mastery belongs to Cyrillic, not to the language, and the first Ukrainian levels go straight to what changes. If you come from Russian, you start there; if not, you learn the whole alphabet all the same.

The 33 letters of the Ukrainian alphabet

Uppercase Lowercase Name Sounds like Looks like
А а A A
Б б Be B
В в Ve V B
Г г He H
Ґ ґ Ge G
Д д De D A
Е е E E
Є є Ye YE
Ж ж Zhe ZH
З з Ze Z E
И и Y Y N
І і I I
Ї ї Yi YI
Й й Short I Y N
К к Ka K
Л л El L
М м Em M
Н н En N H
О о O O
П п Pe P
Р р Er R P
С с Es S C
Т т Te T
У у U U Y
Ф ф Ef F
Х х Kha KH X
Ц ц Tse TS
Ч ч Che CH Y
Ш ш Sha SH
Щ щ Shcha SHCH
Ь ь Soft sign '
Ю ю Yu YU
Я я Ya YA

Words to practise

How you learn it in Phabetia

Every new letter is introduced first with its name and its Latin equivalent, and you have to recognise it before you start practising it. Then come the exercises: letter to sound, sound to letter, quick memory, telling it apart from the Latin letter it resembles, spotting the intruder, completing a word and reading one.

Characters arrive two or three at a time and are never dropped: each level carries the previous ones along. What you get wrong comes back sooner and more often; what you have mastered shows up rarely, and anything you have not seen for days climbs back up on its own.

There are no lives and no punishment: getting one wrong interrupts nothing. To move on you only need 70 % right.

Frequently asked questions

How many letters does the Ukrainian alphabet have?

Thirty-three, like Russian, but not the same ones: Ukrainian has Ґ, Є, І and Ї, and lacks Ё, Ъ, Ы and Э. The apostrophe also plays the part of the Russian hard sign.

If I can read Russian, can I read Ukrainian?

Almost. You will recognise most of the letters, but four are missing and three change their sound: Г, Е and И. Those are exactly the ones Phabetia teaches you first if you come from Russian.

And the other way round, does it help with Russian?

Yes: mastery is stored per Cyrillic letter, so whatever you learn in Ukrainian is already learnt when you open Russian.

Other alphabets