Cyrillic alphabet: 33 letters, the unique letters ґ, є, і, ї, and the apostrophe
I can recognise and read the 33 letters of the Ukrainian alphabet, including the unique letters ґ, є, і, ї and the apostrophe.
Podívejte se na tyto příklady. Dokážete rozpoznat gramatický vzorec?
Моя країна — Україна, а моє місто — Одеса.
Moje země je Ukrajina a moje město Oděsa.
Мене звати Іван, я з Чернігова.
Jmenuji se Ivan, jsem z Černihivu.
Я люблю українську мову й вірші Лесі Українки.
Mám rád ukrajinštinu a básně Lesji Ukrajinky.
Zaměřte se na zvýrazněné části. Co mají společného?
Ukrainian is written in Cyrillic, with 33 letters plus an apostrophe. If you have already met Russian Cyrillic, most of it will look familiar, but Ukrainian has four letters Russian lacks, ґ, є, і, ї, and does without Russian ё, ъ, ы, э. Those four letters are the quickest way to tell a Ukrainian text from a Russian one on a menu or a station sign.
Several letters look like Latin ones and stand for something else. Read them wrong and ресторан becomes "pectopah".
| Letter | Looks like | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| В в | B | v (w at the end of a syllable) | вода "water" |
| Н н | H | n | ніс "nose" |
| Р р | P | a rolled r | ріка "river" |
| С с | C | s | син "son" |
| У у | y | oo, as in "boot" | урок "lesson" |
| Х х | x | kh, as in Scottish "loch" | хліб "bread" |
| Letter | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| І і | [i], as in "machine" | Іван, місто |
| И и | [ɪ], close to the vowel in "sit" | риба, син |
| Ї ї | [ji], "yee" | Україна, їжа |
| Є є | [je], "ye" as in "yes" | Європа, моє |
| Ґ ґ | [g], as in "go" | ґанок, ґудзик |
| Г г | [ɦ], a voiced, breathy h | голос, нога |
The trap for English speakers is the pair і / и. Ukrainian и is not the "ee" a Latin i suggests: син "son" sounds close to English "sin". The "ee" sound belongs to і.
The second trap is г. It is not "g". It is an h with voice in it, so гора "mountain" starts more like "hora" than "gora". The hard "g" of "go" has its own letter, ґ, and it appears in a fairly small set of words: ґанок "porch", ґудзик "button", ґрунт "soil".
The apostrophe is part of the spelling. It keeps a hard consonant apart from the "y" sound that follows, so п'ять "five" is "p-yat", not one blended sound. You will see it in ім'я "name", сім'я "family", м'ясо "meat", п'ятниця "Friday". On a phone keyboard it is often typed as a plain ' and that is accepted.
Ukrainian spelling is close to how words sound, so once the alphabet is in place you can read a sign such as Львів or Хрещатик aloud and be understood. What spelling does not show is stress, which is the next topic.
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1
Procvičovací cvičeníМоя країна — Україна, а моє місто — Одеса.
Moje země je Ukrajina a moje město Oděsa.
Note ї in Україна [ukrajina] ; unstressed о in моя stays [ɔ] and is never reduced.
Мене звати Іван, я з Чернігова.
Jmenuji se Ivan, jsem z Černihivu.
Reading practice: і is [i], not [ɪ].
Я люблю українську мову й вірші Лесі Українки.
Mám rád ukrajinštinu a básně Lesji Ukrajinky.
україн-ську: contains ї earlier in Україна; here plain, and the ї carries the stress: украї́нську.
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Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1