One of the most common questions I get asked when I tell people about my blog is:

“Wait, aren’t Ukrainian and Russian basically the same language?”

The short answer is no.

They do use a similar alphabet and share some history, but they’re two distinct languages.

Think of it like Spanish and Portuguese, or even English and Dutch. If you know one, you might recognize some words in the other, but you won’t be able to fluently understand a conversation without studying.

Many people are surprised to learn that Ukrainian is actually linguistically closer to Polish or Slovak than it is to Russian.

If you’re starting your journey to learn Ukrainian, it’s very helpful to know these differences so you don’t get confused.

In this guide, I’ll break down the main differences in a simple, easy-to-understand way.

Vocabulary differences (they are not as similar as you think)

The biggest difference between the two languages is the vocabulary.

Linguists have found that Ukrainian and Russian only share about 62% of their vocabulary.

To give you some context, English and German share about 60%. So, trying to speak Russian to a Ukrainian speaker (who doesn’t know Russian) would be like speaking German to an American. They might catch a word here and there, but they won’t understand the sentence.

Ukrainian vocabulary has much stronger roots in the Central European distinctiveness. You will find many words that are very similar to Polish.

Here is a table showing some common words where the two languages are completely different:

As you can see, basic words like “thank you” or “paper” sound nothing alike!

The alphabet: different letters

Both languages use the Cyrillic script, but they use different versions of it.

Just like English and French both use Latin letters but have different accents (like é or ç), Ukrainian and Russian have unique letters that belong only to them.

Letters found ONLY in Ukrainian:

• Ґ (g): This makes a hard “g” sound like in “go”.
• Є (ye): Sounds like “yes”.
• І (i): Sounds like “see”.
• Ї (yi): Sounds like “yield”. This letter is a symbol of the Ukrainian language because it is very unique!

Letters found ONLY in Russian:

• Ё (yo): Sounds like “yonder”.
• Ъ (hard sign): This symbol has no sound but makes the previous letter hard.
• Ы (y): A deep throat “i” sound.
• Э (e): Sounds like “bed”.

If you see a text with the letter Ї or Є, you know immediately that it is Ukrainian. If you see ы or э, it is Russian.

Pronunciation: soft vs. hard

If you listen to both languages side-by-side, they have a different “music” or rhythm.

The “H” vs. “G” sound

This is the easiest way to tell the accent apart.

In Ukrainian, the letter Г makes an “H” sound (like in “house” or “hello”). It is a soft, breathy sound.

In Russian, the letter Г makes a hard “G” sound (like in “go”).

For example, the city names:

• In Ukrainian, “Harkiv” starts with an H sound.
• In Russian, they would say “Garkiv”.

The letter “O”

In Ukrainian, we pronounce words exactly as they are written. If a word has an O, you say “O”. It is very consistent.

In Russian, there is a rule called “vowel reduction.” If the letter O is not stressed (emphasized), it is pronounced like an “A”.

• Word: Молоко (Milk)
• Ukrainian pronunciation: Mo-lo-ko (all O’s are clear).
• Russian pronunciation: Ma-la-ko.

This makes Ukrainian a bit easier for beginners to read because you don’t have to guess how the vowel changes!

Grammar: the extra case

Ukrainian and Russian grammar are similar in structure. Both have genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and both use a “case system” (where word endings change depending on their role in the sentence).

However, Ukrainian has 7 cases, while Russian has only 6.

The extra case in Ukrainian is called the Vocative Case (Klychnyi vidminok).

We use this case when we are calling or addressing someone directly.

In the example above, the word for brother is brat, but because I am talking to him, it becomes brate.

Russian historically lost this case (though it exists in some religious texts), so they usually just use the standard Nominative case to call names.

The Future Tense

Ukrainian also has a very flexible future tense for imperfective verbs. We can form the future in two ways.

1. Using the helper word “to be” (budu) + verb.
2. Adding a specific ending to the verb itself (-mu).

OR

Russian only uses the first method (“budu” + verb). The synthetic form (chytatymu) does not exist in modern Russian.

False friends: words that trick you

”False friends” are words that look or sound the same in two languages but mean completely different things. These can lead to some funny (or embarrassing!) misunderstandings.

Here are a few classic examples:

1. Kit (Кіт)

• Ukrainian: Cat 🐱
• Russian: Whale 🐋

2. Rodyna (Родина)

• Ukrainian: Family
• Russian: Motherland

3. Harbuz (Гарбуз)

• Ukrainian: Pumpkin
• Russian: Watermelon (spelled arbuz)

So, if you ask for a “kit” in a Russian store, they might look for a giant sea creature. If you tell a Ukrainian you love your “rodyna”, you mean your family, but a Russian speaker might think you’re being very patriotic about your country!

What is Surzhyk?

If you travel to certain parts of Ukraine, you might hear a mix of both languages. This is called Surzhyk.

Surzhyk isn’t a strict dialect with rules. It is a chaotic mix where people use Ukrainian grammar with Russian vocabulary, or vice versa. It originated because Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union for a long time, so the languages blended in everyday life.

For example, someone might say “Dyakuyu” (Ukrainian for thank you) but use “konechno” (Russian for of course) in the same sentence.

It is helpful to be aware of this, but as a learner, you should focus on learning standard Ukrainian first!

Summary

While Ukrainian and Russian share a branch on the Slavic language tree, they have grown in different directions.

To recap:

• They only share 62% of vocabulary.
• They have different alphabets (Look for the Ї in Ukrainian!).
• Ukrainian pronunciation is “harder” regarding the letter O, but “softer” regarding the letter H.
• Ukrainian has 7 grammatical cases (including the Vocative).

Learning Ukrainian is a beautiful journey into a rich, melodic, and unique language. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s “just a dialect”!