The Ukrainian alphabet: 33 letters, ґ є і ї and how to read them

The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters, and it is not the Russian one. It has four letters Russian lacks — Ґ, Є, І, Ї — and does without four Russian letters. Two familiar shapes, Г and И, also stand for different sounds. This guide goes through every letter with words and IPA checked in Wiktionary. To see where you stand, try the free Ukrainian level test.

Updated November 15, 2026 · 5 min read

Ukrainian at a glance

Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine says: “The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language.” The same article guarantees the free development, use and protection of Russian and of the other languages of national minorities. If you need Ukrainian for a passport, our guide to the Ukrainian language exam for citizenship explains the level and the format.

All 33 letters

In alphabetical order, as Wiktionary lists them:

The apostrophe (’) is not a letter, but it is part of the spelling: you will meet it in words like м'ясо (meat). More on it below.

Ukrainian and Russian: what is different

Both alphabets have 33 letters, but not the same 33. Compare Wiktionary's Russian list with the one above:

So a Russian reader who sees гора (mountain) must not read a hard g: Wiktionary gives it as ɦɔˈra], with the voiced h of the Ukrainian Г. The hard g has its own letter, Ґ: ґанок (porch) is [ˈɡanɔk]. If you are coming from Russian, our guide to [the Russian alphabet is a good place to compare letter by letter; readers of Serbian Cyrillic will find yet another set of differences.

The consonants

Wiktionary's Ukrainian pronunciation appendix — based on standard literary Ukrainian, close to the speech around Kyiv — gives these sounds. The English comparisons are our own rough guide.

The ten vowel letters

Ukrainian has six vowel sounds but ten vowel letters, because four letters add a y sound in front:

Two things trip up beginners. First, И is not “ee” as in Russian: it is a relaxed /ɪ/, close to the i in “bit”, while І is the clear /i/. Second, unstressed vowels shift a little — the appendix gives /a/ → [ɐ], /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ → [e], /ɔ/ → [o], /u/ → [ʊ] — so Україна starts with [ʊ]. Stress is not written in ordinary Ukrainian, so learn it with each word.

Soft sign, apostrophe and softening

After a consonant, Я, Є, І and Ю soften it: the consonant is said with the tongue raised towards the palate (IPA /ʲ/), as in ніч [nʲit͡ʃ]. The soft sign Ь does the same at the end of a syllable: день [dɛnʲ]. The apostrophe does the opposite — it keeps the consonant hard and lets the vowel keep its y sound: м'ясо (meat) is [ˈmjasɔ], not “mʲasɔ”. Ї always reads /ji/, wherever it stands.

First words to practise reading

If you also learn Polish, Czech or Serbian

If you are learning a neighbouring language as well, our guides to Polish citizenship and the B1 certificate and the Czech A2 exam for permanent residence cover two common next steps. Compare levels with the Russian, Polish and Serbian tests, or read about other scripts — Georgian, Lithuanian and Romanian.

Learning Ukrainian with 16Word

16Word teaches Ukrainian with 16 words a day, spaced repetition and a short game of Blocks between answers, so the letters above turn into words you recognise. Start with the Ukrainian level test. 16Word is free to start; see the plans for more.

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