Hisses, ch, and little tails

One letter, two cases

Ukrainian uses 33 Cyrillic letters, read from left to right. Capitals start sentences and names. These lessons use upright print: handwriting and italics can look different. A letter name is a label; the sound cue tells you how to read it. The soft sign is a letter but has no sound of its own.

tse

Ц ц makes ts, as at the end of cats. Look for two uprights and the small tail at the lower right.

ц

tse

che

Ч ч makes ch, as in chair. Its upper part is open; compare it with Ц ц and Ш ш.

ч

che

sha

Ш ш makes sh. It has three uprights joined along the bottom and no extra lower-right tail.

ш

sha

shcha

Щ щ makes sh followed by ch. It resembles Ш ш but adds a small tail at the lower right.

щ

shcha