How Similar or Different Are Ukrainian and Russian Languages? History, Numbers, Examples

How similar are the Ukrainian and Russian languages? This is probably the most common question foreigners ask us. We are always happy to explain 🙂

In this article, find the similarities and differences between the Ukrainian and Russian languages on the different linguistic levels: vocabulary, letters & sounds, grammar, and sentence structure.

All Slavic languages, including Ukrainian and Russian, were dialects at first. They were formed out of the Proto-Slavic language that existed approximately from the 5th to 9th centuries in the pink area here:

Nowadays, there are more than 20 Slavic languages. Traditionally they are divided into three subgroups:

• East Slavic (Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian),
• West Slavic (like Polish, Czech, or Slovak),
• South Slavic (like Slovene, Croatian, Macedonian, or Bulgarian).

However, modern linguists admit that this division is more geographical (and political) than factual. Also, because Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian use the Cyrillic alphabet, they tend to be perceived as one group (although Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian also use the Cyrillic alphabet).

However, in fact, in some aspects, Ukrainian is more similar to Slovak or Polish (from the West group) than to the Russian language.

Anyway, there are many similarities between the Ukrainian and Russian languages, as the two nations have been connected politically and geographically for centuries.

Today Ukraine and Russia share a 2295-kilometer-long border. In the past, the countries were two republics of the Soviet Union with very strong political ties. Earlier, for more than a century, a big part of Ukraine was a part of the Russian empire. So, obviously, two languages of the same origin have many similarities.

Let’s look at different areas of language to compare how similar or different Ukrainian and Russian are.

Ukraine is a bilingual country with Ukrainian and Russian as the two widely used languages. The language situation in Ukraine is probably more complicated than Ukrainian grammar! To understand it better, read our article here.

Ukrainian vs Russian: Vocabulary

Let’s start with vocabulary – the actual words we use and pass through generations.

In terms of vocabulary, the Ukrainian language is the closest to Belarusian (16% of difference), and the Russian language to Bulgarian (27% of difference).

After Belarusian, Ukrainian is also closer to Slovak, Polish, and Czech than to Russian – 38% of Ukrainian vocabulary is different from Russian.

If we compare it with other European languages, the difference is like between Spanish and Italian (33% of different vocabulary) or French and Portuguese (39%).

Ukrainian and Russian share the oldest words that come from the Proto-Slavic language and were needed for life back then:

Also, Ukrainian and Russian share words that come from other languages:

However, there is a 38% difference in vocabulary, including foreign words.

During and after Peter the Great’s Europeanization campaign, the Russian language incorporated many words of Latin, French, German, and Italian origin. The Ukrainian language mostly developed based on the spoken language that 19th-century writers started to actively use in their literary and research works.

Here are some examples of differences between Ukrainian and Russian vocabulary:

Names of months in Ukrainian have their own unique origin. That is why they are so defferent from English, German or Russian. Learn Ukrainian (awesome) names of months and their origin with our article!

There are plenty of Ukrainian-Russian homonyms – words that sound the same but mean completely different things:

• час
  • time (in Ukrainian)
  • an hour (in Russian)
• неділя (Ukr.) – неделя (Rus.)
  • Sunday (in Ukrainian)
  • a week (in Russian)
• лук
  • a bow (in Ukrainian)
  • an onion (in Russian)

Ukrainian vs Russian: Alphabets

Both Russian and Ukrainian languages use the Cyrillic script. There are 7 differences, though. Have a look at Russian (on top) and then Ukrainian alphabets to compare:

Differences between Ukrainian and Russian alphabets are the following:

1. Ґ in Ukrainian

Ukrainian alphabet has Ґ ґ, but Russian doesn’t (in Russian, г represents the sound /g/).

2. І in Ukrainian

Ukrainian alphabet has І і, but in Russian, the letter и is used to represent the sound /i/.

3. Ы in Russian

Russian alphabet has ы, but in Ukrainian, it is и.

4. Ї in Ukrainian

Ukrainian alphabet has Ї ї, but in Russian, it’s a combination йи to represent /ji/.

5. Э in Russian

The Russian alphabet has Э э, but Ukrainian doesn’t (in Ukrainian, it’s E e to represent /e/ (or /ɛ/, however, it is a less open sound in Ukrainian).

6. Є in Ukrainian

The Ukrainian alphabet has Є є, but Russian doesn’t (in Russian, е represents /je/).

7. Ё in Russian

Russian alphabet has Ё ё, but Ukrainian doesn’t (in Ukrainian, it’s a combination йо to represent /jo/)

8. ъ in Russian

Russian alphabet has the hard sign (ъ), but Ukrainian doesn’t (in Ukrainian, the apostrophe is used instead (’).

Want to know more about the difference between letters and sounds х, г, ґ in Ukrainian? This article can help you!

Ukrainian vs Russian: Pronunciation

Most of the sounds themselves in Russian and Ukrainian are the same or very similar. However, there are some differences in pronunciation that depend on the combinations of sounds.

Here are the major differences between Ukrainian and Russian pronunciations.

1.  Sound [г] in the Ukrainian language

The Ukrainian language has a specific sound represented by the letter Г г. It sounds similar to [h] in Aha!

There is no such sound in Russian, so Ukrainians are easily spotted when they speak Russian as they sometimes forget not to use this sound instead of /g/ for Russian г.

2. In Russian, О is often pronounced as [a]

The Russian letter O о is pronounced as [a] or an unclear schwa [ə] when it is not stressed. In Ukrainian, О is always pronounced as [o]. For example:

3. More soft consonants in Ukrainian

In the Ukrainian language, soft consonants are used more often than in Russian (and many other Slavic languages):

4. Ukrainian “И”, “Е” are not completely the same as Russian “Ы”, “Э” 

These difference is subtle and depends on the person’s dialect too, but in short:

• Russian [ы] is deeper than Ukrainian [и].
• Russian [э] is more open than Ukrainian [е].

Ukrainian vs Russian: Grammar

In general, it is quite easy to learn the grammar of the second Slavic language because they all have similar principles and categories: noun cases, verb tenses, genders, etc.

That is why we can say that Russian and Ukrainian grammar systems are very similar in concepts, but they differ in representation (endings).

Compare the two sentences below. They have the same grammar structure (Nominative case + Past tense + Accusative case + Instrumental case), but the endings are different:

Some more important grammar differences include:

1. Vocative case in Ukrainian

In Russian, nouns can be used in 6 cases (forms), whereas in Ukrainian, there are 7 cases. An extra one is called Кличний відмінок – Vocative case. It is used to directly address someone, like in the correspondence:

2. Different ways to say “I have”

In Russian, the most common way to say “I have” is У меня есть.

In Ukrainian, we use two forms: У мене є (by Russian influence) and also Western Slavic Я маю.

3. 3 types of future tense in Ukrainian

In Ukrainian, there are 3 grammatical ways to talk about the future. In Russian, there are two of them.

See below the future tense for робити — делать (to do):

Learn more about the future tense in Ukrainian with Episode 28 of Ukrainian Lessons Podcast.

Ukrainian vs Russian: Syntax

Sentence organization is probably the area where Ukrainian and Russian languages (as well as many other Slavic languages) are the most similar. Compare the structure of a folktale that is famous in both Ukrainian and Russian cultures — “Рукавичка” (The Mitten):

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These were only some of the similarities and differences between the Ukrainian and Russian languages. I hope that with the help of this list and examples, you are able to compare these Slavic languages.

Нехай щастить! Желаю удачи! Good luck! 🙂

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