Learning The Letters and their Sounds

Group 4: Letters representing blended sounds – ч, ш, ж, ц, щ, є, ї, ю, я, ‘ь'

Listen, repeat, and listen to the letter blends.

Capital Small Pronunciation

Ч ч [ch] as in chair

Ш ш [sh] as in share

Ж ж [zh] as in measure

Ц ц [ts] as in beets, tsunami

Щ щ [shch] as in borshch*

* Make sure that both the sh and ch are distinctly heard in this blend.

Oral Practise # 7

Read the following syllables out loud. Try to make sure that the vowels are clear and pronounced fully.

ча -- че -- чи -- чі -- чо -- чу

ша -- ше -- ши -- ші -- шо -- шу

жа -- же -- жи -- жі -- жо -- жу

ца -- це -- ци -- ці -- цо -- цу

ща -- ще -- щи -- щі -- що -- щу

Oral Practise #8

Listen to the words below in the audio clip provided.

Repeat the Ukrainian words by modeling what you heard in the audio clip. Practise until you can read the words smoothly and fluently.

Iotized Vowels

The following letters are called iotized vowels because their sound is created by combining a basic vowel with the letter ? , as follows:

й + е = є Є [ye] as in yellow

й + і = ї Ї [yi] as in yeast

й + у = ю Ю [yu] as in yule or use

й + а = я Я [ya] as in yard

Oral Practise #9

Read the following words out loud. Each word has an iotized vowel. You'll notice that some of the words have an apostrophe. This does not affect pronunciation.

Listen to the audio clips to check your pronunciation.

The Soft Sign ь

A unique ‘non-letter' in Ukrainian is the soft sign ь ( м*який знак ). It does not have its own sound, but it softens consonants which precede it. The seven consonants which are softened by this sign are:

н – нь, л – ль, с – сь, т – ть, д – дь, з – зь, ц - ць

Oral Practise #10

First, listen to the audio clip in order to hear how the regular letters and softened letters differ when they are pronounced with certain vowels.

нo – ньo, лo – льo, сo– сьo, тo – тьo, дo – дьo

зo – зьo, цo – цьo, он – онь, ол – оль, ід – ідь

ос – ось, от – оть, од – одь, оз – озь, оц – оць

із – ізь, ан – ань, ал – аль, ат – ать, ад – адь

Now it is your turn to read the sound combinations above. Check your pronunciation by listening and repeating with the audio clip.

Oral Practise #11

Now you are ready to listen to the audio clip and repeat the words below which contain ‘softened' letters.

пил - Василь ----- голос – лось

оцет – отець ----- стан – встань

кіно – кінь ----- дівчат – спішать

віз – скізь ----- палац – місяць

Тарас – карась ----- човен – день

чоло – сольо ----- гілка – кільце

віл – вільні ----- оса – ось

You have now completed your journey into the world of the Ukrainian alphabet.

Review your knowledge of the sound and appearance of each alphabet. It is recommended that you memorize the order of the alphabet so that you may find words in the Ukrainian dictionary more quickly and efficiently.