Ukrainian

Ukrainian is written in Cyrillic, so practice starts with reading it. The vocab drill works through common words in tiers, each with its stress marked and its spelling in Latin letters. The grammar drill builds from the alphabet up to whole sentences, each track made of short concepts with a reference to read before you start. Every concept starts as multiple choice and moves on to typing — on the Cyrillic keys under the answer box, or in Latin letters that turn into Cyrillic as you type. (Not in Reading Cyrillic, where finding the letter is the point.)

Stress, the soft sign & the apostrophe

Stress can fall on any syllable, and nothing in the spelling says which. Ordinary Ukrainian writing doesn't mark it, so here every word of more than one syllable carries a mark over the stressed vowel — моло́ко. You never have to type the mark.

Say every vowel in full. An unstressed о is still an o: моло́ко is mo-LO-ko, not the ma-la-KO of Russian.

Stress can change the word
same letters, different stress
за́мок · замо́к
castle · lock
Stress can move
in another form of the same word
рука́ · ру́ки
a hand · hands
ь — the soft sign
no sound of its own
день · сіль
day · salt — it softens the consonant before it
’ — the apostrophe
keeps the "y" of я ю є ї whole
сім’я · п’ять
sim-ya (family) · p-yat (five)

Without the apostrophe, я ю є ї after a consonant soften it instead of adding a "y": ля is one sound, сім’я is two.

Under every answer is its spelling in Latin letters — the same spelling the answer box turns into Cyrillic as you type.

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Grammar Drill

Choose a track to practice.