How long will it take to learn Ukrainian?
Due to being a Slavic language, Ukrainian is one of the hardest languages to learn by native English speakers. In fact, according to the FSI (Foreign Service Institute) of the US government, an English speaker would need about 1100 class hours or 44 weeks of practice to become fluent in Ukrainian.
Usually, each letter corresponds to only one sound and there are only 33 letters to learn. Also, most of Ukrainian sounds exist in English, so you will only see a few new ones. This course is short and effective. You will be able to complete it one or two days.
Learn Ukrainian in just 5 minutes a day. For free.
Whether you're a beginner starting with the basics or looking to practice your reading, writing, and speaking, Duolingo is scientifically proven to work.
Learning Ukrainian Helps You Easily Understand Other Languages. Once you learn Ukrainian, you can understand Polish, Czech, Belarusian, or other Slavic languages because they are quite similar. Coming from the same family of languages, they share common sounds and roots of words.
1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world.
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- Swedish.
[dobryden'] – Hello! (shorten form of “добрий день”) This greeting is the most common and the most universal.
How to Read Ukrainian Alphabet Ukrainian Pronunciation ... - YouTube
The pronunciation of the Ukrainian [г] is similar to the English [h] in ”hot” or ”happy” but voiced and pronounced with greater energy.
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- Arabic. ...
- English. ...
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- French.
Is Ukrainian closer to Russian or Polish?
Grammatically and morphologically Ukrainian is closer to Russian: they both have common East Slavic features. However, lexically Ukrainian is closer to Polish and Slovak. Many people say that this is because of big amount of borrowed West Slavic words.
As we speak, English proficiency among most Ukrainians is still very low. So I would say that not many Ukrainians speak English. One of the main reasons is that it's not an essential part of the learning curriculum in schools.

Duolingo, a language-learning platform based in Pittsburgh, reports an estimated 341,000 English-speaking learners have begun studying the Ukrainian language since the start of the war. Dr.
25 COMMON UKRAINIAN PHRASES EVERY LEARNER MUST KNOW
How to say that you are learning Ukrainian - YouTube
Russian and Ukrainian are both pretty much at the same level of difficulty for a native English speaker to learn.
If you already speak Russian, learning Ukrainian will be really easy, since both languages use Cyrillic and have similar uses of grammar and syntax. Besides, a great number of words are written in the same way, despite their use might be different, but then again, it will be a matter of practicing the language.
You can use Duolingo to learn basic Ukrainian, but it won't help you become fluent. The activities are fun and usually helpful, so it can be a good place to start your language learning journey. It's important to note that it doesn't teach you the Ukrainian alphabet.
Ukrainian | |
---|---|
Language family | Indo-European Balto-Slavic Slavic East Slavic Ukrainian |
Early forms | Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Proto-Slavic Old East Slavic Ruthenian (Old Ukrainian) |
Dialects | Balachka Canadian Motolian Pokuttia-Bukovina Hutsul Among others, see: Ukrainian dialects |