Ukrainian · Cyrillic letters & sounds

Ukrainian alphabet

Learn all 33 Ukrainian letters, distinguish similar shapes, practise Б and б, and read your first words. Continue with A1–A2 written practice in reading, vocabulary and grammar.

Ukrainian has 33 Cyrillic letters. Capitals and lowercase share their letter identity. These examples use upright print. The soft sign ь belongs to the alphabet but has no sound of its own; the apostrophe is a separate spelling sign.

Ukrainian letters in alphabetic order
#	Capital	Lowercase	Name	Sound & recognition cue
1	А	а	a	А а makes a, approximately the vowel in father. The capital resembles Latin A.
2	Б	б	be	Б б makes b. Do not confuse it with В в, which makes v. Notice the different upper strokes.
3	В	в	ve	В в makes a v-like sound, not b. It can sound closer to w at the end of a syllable.
4	Г	г	he	Г г makes a voiced h-like sound. Ґ ґ has an extra upturn and makes hard g.
5	Ґ	ґ	ge	Ґ ґ makes hard g, as in go. Look for the small upturn that distinguishes it from Г г.
6	Д	д	de	Д д makes d. In upright print, look for the broad base and small feet; handwriting and italics can look different.
7	Е	е	e	Е е makes e, approximately the vowel in bed. Є є is a different letter: compare the straight and curved left edges.
8	Є	є	ye	Є є is ye at the start of a word, after a vowel or apostrophe. After a consonant it normally marks a soft consonant followed by e.
9	Ж	ж	zhe	Ж ж is the sound in measure. Look for the central upright with diagonal strokes on both sides.
10	З	з	ze	З з makes z. It resembles the digit 3, but it is a letter; С с makes s.
11	И	и	y	И и is approximately the vowel in bit, not ee. Compare И и with І і and Й й. The teaching label y names this vowel; it is not English y in yes.
12	І	і	i	І і makes ee, as in see. The lowercase has one dot; ї has two and adds a y sound.
13	Ї	ї	yi	Ї ї makes yi: y as in yes followed by ee. Its two dots distinguish it from І і.
14	Й	й	yot	Й й is the consonant y in yes. Look for the short curved mark above И и; it is not a vowel.
15	К	к	ka	К к makes k. It looks familiar, but remember that Cyrillic С с is s, not k.
16	Л	л	el	Л л makes l. Compare its two main legs with the broader base and feet of Д д.
17	М	м	em	М м makes m. Both cases have a central dip; lowercase м is not written like printed Latin m.
18	Н	н	en	Н н makes n, not h. Look for the crossbar joining two uprights.
19	О	о	o	О о makes a single rounded o. Avoid adding the glide at the end of English go.
20	П	п	pe	П п makes p. It has a top bar across two legs. Р р makes r despite looking like Latin P.
21	Р	р	er	Р р makes a tongue-tip r, not p. Use П п for p.
22	С	с	es	С с makes s. Do not use the k sound that Latin C sometimes has.
23	Т	т	te	Т т makes t. These lessons use upright print; cursive and italic т can resemble Latin m.
24	У	у	u	У у makes oo, as in food. Its Latin-looking Y outline does not give it a y sound.
25	Ф	ф	ef	Ф ф makes f. Look for a loop crossed by a vertical stroke.
26	Х	х	kha	Х х is the friction sound in Scottish loch, not ks. Compare Г г, voiced h, and Ґ ґ, hard g.
27	Ц	ц	tse	Ц ц makes ts, as at the end of cats. Look for two uprights and the small tail at the lower right.
28	Ч	ч	che	Ч ч makes ch, as in chair. Its upper part is open; compare it with Ц ц and Ш ш.
29	Ш	ш	sha	Ш ш makes sh. It has three uprights joined along the bottom and no extra lower-right tail.
30	Щ	щ	shcha	Щ щ makes sh followed by ch. It resembles Ш ш but adds a small tail at the lower right.
31	Ь	ь	soft sign	Ь ь has no sound of its own: it marks the preceding consonant as soft. Softness means raising the middle of the tongue toward the hard palate. Ь is used in all-capital text, not at the beginning of a normal word.
32	Ю	ю	yu	Ю ю is yu at the start of a word, after a vowel or apostrophe. After a consonant it normally marks softness followed by u.
33	Я	я	ya	Я я is ya at the start of a word, after a vowel or apostrophe. After a consonant it normally marks softness followed by a. It is not a backwards Latin R.

Small signs and vowel combinations

ь marks the preceding consonant as soft. The apostrophe ’ keeps pronunciation separate before я, ю, є, ї; it is not an extra letter.

є · ю · я are ye, yu, ya initially, after vowels, or after an apostrophe. After a consonant they normally mark softness plus e, u, a. ї keeps y + i.

Practise signs and softness →

Letter names identify characters; DIN describes spelling, while IPA and phonetic notes describe sounds. English comparisons are approximate.

Script reference: The Unicode Standard. Practise with guided lessons →