How similiar are Russian and Ukrainian?

Hi! I was wondering if any Russian and Ukrainian speakers could give me their input on how similiar the two languages are. I was told they are very similiar and if you know one, you can probably understand the other. I worked at an elementary (primary) school that had a program for Russian-speaking children and a lot of them had moved from Ukraine and a few from Moldova as well as Russia, but the classes were taught in Russian and the Ukrainian children had no problem understanding it. The teacher was from Ukraine and she said they're almost identical. What I'm wondering is if I study Russian, would I be able to understand Ukrainian, too, or would I probably need to study it in addition to Russian? Is the written language different? Maybe it also depends on which part of Ukraine it is? Thanks for your help! By the way, if anyone would like to help me with Ukrainian or Russian in exchange for English, please let me know!

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Stuck Jul 12, 2005 @ 05:54

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Hello! I was born and grew up in Ukraine, but I don't consider Ukrainian as my mother tongue, Russian is my native language, and I'll explain why. Actually Ukraine can be divided into two parts: Eastern and Western. The eastern part, including Crimea speaks Russian, maybe because it is closer to Russia, I don't know, it is just how it is. And the Western part speaks only Ukrainian. Districts that are close to Poland have some kind of language mixture (Ukrainian + Polish + Chezh). That part is quite nationalistic. They don't really like Russian people. And I heard so many stories how Russians were treated badly in that part of Ukraine. In the capital of Ukraine people speak both Russian and Ukrainian.

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Laloosh Jun 04, 2011 @ 05:43

Люди не спорьте... Українська та російська мови звичайно схожі.... Це ж все таки слов'янські мови. Але в ніх є і свої розбіжності, зокрема, в орфографії та орфоепіці.

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AlexLovecraft Jul 22, 2010 @ 23:47

Hello,

here is a site I build to learn Russian

(very similar to Ukrainian language)

with a Russian keyboard to Chat

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http://lang.svenska.free.fr

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Best regards from city Toulouse (Southern FRANCE)

François

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languages1001 Mar 01, 2008 @ 02:57

Hello. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

Russian and Ukrainian are similiar in many ways but they are far from being identical. Alphabet and Syntax are rather the same, but grammar is not. Ukrainian grammar is more simple and stands much nearer to other slavian languages than russian one does. Vocabulary also have many serious differences. With a surprise I found out that greater part of people in Russia can't follow fluent Ukrainian and the most of them don't get even written Ukrainian while people living in Ukraine in common know both languages because of historical conditions. You will not feel yourself more comfortable with one language if you know just the other. You have to study both of them separately otherwise you get no chance to express your thoughts. As for a non-native slavian speaker it makes the task even more difficult.

However... Those were right who said that understanding any of those two is just a matter of beeing used to. So, while Russian is more difficult and has greater amount of exclusions it can be more preferable to concentrate on studying it. In the other hand, Ukrainian makes more good for the success with other slavian languages.

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Drex Jan 31, 2008 @ 10:33

Hi, a lot of my family members are either historians or somehow their job is related to it or they just study it for pleasure and curiosity. I see that member "gigant26" the person that wrote:

"Being a native of both Ukrainian and Russian, and also being an amateur linguist, let me explain a few things. First, Ukrainian did not develop directly from Russian or vice versa. Ukrainian developed from the language spoken in the Kievan Rus'. etc. "

is quite knowledgeable in both history and current events of Russians and Ukrainians. I AGREE WITH THIS MEMBER TOTALLY.... please be aware that most of what is now was created at some point in history. Everything that he said is correct, these languages ARE similar in several ways, i read all of the comments on this topic and i noticed that a lot of people are saying that the Russian and Ukrainian languages are not similar, wrong, *please don't take this personally* either you didn't notice the similarities, or are not so familiar with both/either languages or some other reason. I believe that not all people have it easy to learn a language.

However, just because you know Russian/Ukrainian doesn't mean you can easily understand Ukrainian/Russian. There are* similarities between these languages and you will* understand (not fluently) one of them, if you know the other fluently.

I can go on "lecturing" forever (at least until i get tired or bored of it), but these facts, i suppose, are basically what you asked, am i right? WELL THEN Alrighty-almighty,

adios, sayonara, dasvidanie, dopobachenya, areua, chocolom, and finally in english... bye

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weindreams Jul 18, 2007 @ 10:38

I was born and I live in Ukraine and often at all I do not notice in what language now speak on the TV for example. That is for the majority ukrainians Russian language and ukrainian language are similar. But they (ukrainians) heard ukrainian and russian since the childhood at school and in the streets and anywhere. But for Russians, Ukrainian language is difficult. Many hear and understand some words or do not understand at all. Many words similar to hearing have absolutely different values. Many Ukrainian words, unlike Russian have a latin origin. There is a difference in a pronunciation too. Because in ukrainian language as well as in the majority of other slavic languages there is no reduction of unaccented vowel sounds. And in Russian practically always. There are also other differences. Any way for russians learning ukrainian is not so difficult as learning english.

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Stany Dec 28, 2005 @ 15:18

Ú Ò¦ÚÄ×ÏÍ ¦ ÎÏ×ÉÍ ÒÏËÏÍ! ÕÓ¦Í ÕÓØÏÇÏ ÎÁÊËÒÁÝÏÇÏ, ÝÏÂ ÕÓ¦ ×ÁÛ¦ ÍÒ¦§ ÚÄ¦ÊÓÎÉÌÉÓÑ!

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zhiguli Dec 24, 2005 @ 17:57

òÁÄÉÊ ÚÁ ÔÅÂÅ. õ ÍÅÎÅ ×ÓÅ ÔÁËÏÖ ÄÏÂÒÅ. í¦Ö ¦ÎÛÉÍ - Ú ò¦ÚÄ×ÏÍ èÒÉÓÔÏ×ÉÍ! ôÁË, ÎÁÐÅ×ÎÅ ÔÉ ÍÅÎÅ ÚÎÁ¤Û Ú õÎ¦ìÁÎÕ. Actually, yes, many "l"s have turned into "v", which is however pronounced similar to English "w". Belarussian has this feature too, and even has a separate letter to represent this sound.[br][edited by gigant26 on 2005-12-24 15:58:48]

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gigant26 Dec 24, 2005 @ 15:58

усе файно, дякую, як справи в тебе? ми випадкого не зустрілися в іншому мово-сайті?)) i heard that ukrainian has a lot less church slavic/bulgarian influence than russian, and that's why they don't have doublets like сторона/страна короткий/краткий. and a lot of л in russian turned into в/w in ukrainian (same as polish) and russian can also help in finding out the proper declension of words like дощ, ніч, etc cause the soft sign that still exists in russian was lost in ukrainian. but i'm no expert.

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zhiguli Dec 24, 2005 @ 07:00

Being a native of both Ukrainian and Russian, and also being an amateur linguist, let me explain a few things. First, Ukrainian did not develop directly from Russian or vice versa. Ukrainian developed from the language spoken in the Kievan Rus'. Kievan Rus was a Christian Orthodox stronghold in Eastern Europe, so Church Slavonic language, based on Serbian, was used officially. Its elements eventually were transfered to the spoken colloquial language, then mixing with Western Slavic i.e. Polish and Slovak elements and Eastern Slavic i.e. Russian elements. PRONOUNCIATION Pronounciation is similar to Slovak and Russian. Slavic "g" has changed to "h", like in Slovak and Czech, although a small noumber of words with "g" remains. There are no nasals like in Polish, and soft "s" and "c" are pronounced like in Russian and not like in Polish. There is much more "y" than in other Slavic languages. Written "v" is pronounced similar to English "w"- this sound is only found in Ukrainian and Belarussian. GRAMMAR- Verb Congugation. Here, influence of Eastern and Church Slavonic can be noticed. Also, a bit of Western influence. In Present Tense, first person plural ending for verbs is "-mo", like in Serbian and Church Slavonic, not "-my", like in Polish, or "-me", like in Slovak. First person singular is "-ju", like in Eastern Slavic elements. Past tense male singular mutated from Serbian "-o" to written "-v", but pronounced similarly to English "w". In Present tense third person singular, the ending is "-je", like in Slovak or Polish, not "-jet", like in Russian and "-yt'", similar to Russian (in Russian it's "-it"). VOCABULARY Vocabulary is mostly a mixture of Polish, Russian and Belarussian- very little Serbian, mostly concerning religion. Over 60% of vocabulary is shared with Polish, 75% with Belarussian, although the pronounciation is different. The letter "o" in roots of many words is changed to "i" in nominative case. This is a unique fixture of Ukrainian.... I could go on and on, but it'd take too long. All I can say is that Ukrainian is effectively a mixture of Western, Eastern and Southern Slavic languages, which makes it hard to understand for a person who only knows one other Slavic language- you have to know a Southern, Western and Eastern Slavic language to understand most of Ukrainian- then you'll be more or less comfortable. PS: Hey, zhiguli, how's things? [br][edited by gigant26 on 2005-12-23 23:09:44]

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gigant26 Dec 23, 2005 @ 23:05

Hi! I was born in Moscow and consequently Russian is my mother tongue. These two languages are very similar that's why they belong to the East Slavic branch. For instance, one knows Russian then it is only the matter of getting used to hearing Ukrainian.(and vise versa) It may be hard to at first but if you hear it sometime you soon find out it is easy. One of my friends, he's Ukrainian, learned Polish this way by watching Polish TV. He had some difficulty at first but gradually he managed to understand 95% of what they said. No one will ever argue that German and Russian are similar because you can listen to German on the radio for years but not understand a thing without a special course on grammar and phonetics. It's different with the Slavic languages. So, I guess those who say they are not similar just never investigated the question seriuosly :)

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Yana Nov 13, 2005 @ 11:57

Das Ukrainische hat mit dem Polnischen viel mehr gemeinsam als mit dem Russischen, ausser natuerlich der Schreibweise. Elliot

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buzzings Nov 09, 2005 @ 15:02

well, there was a time when Russia and Ukraine were one country, so the generation that lived in that time know both Russian and Ukranian. In fact, our cultures have mixed a lot during this time and also the Ukranian language has taken a lot from Russian. Now I go to Ukraine often in summer and most of people there speak Russian, children also learn Russian. Russians can understand Ukrainian, Ukranian can understand Russian, but not like their native. The pronunciation has many differences.

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Elanorielle Oct 29, 2005 @ 13:03

yes, its true that ukrainian people can understand russian...but if you want understand ukrainian it's better to study it. It would not be so hard when you know russian. Ukrainian & Russian have similar grammar, letters (both use Cyrillic alphabet...80% of similarity)..we have common words.

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Viktoriia Oct 28, 2005 @ 00:51

I can say that Ukrainian and Russian looks like similar only for Ukrainians.But - Ukrainan and Polish ARE very similar - we can understand each other(from personal experience).There's a joke in Ukraine that Ukrainian is slow-spelling Polish, and Polish is fast-spelling Ukrainian.

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romeo-francais Sept 30, 2005 @ 19:35

I am russian and I was in Ukraine this summer. Yes ukr language and rus languae are very similar... but anyway I couldn't understand Ukr language... I can't say that AT ALL... A lot of people say that if you know Russian so Ukr language will be easy for you... it's not right...you should have time to get this language. and you know some ukr words if to say them to russian people (who never heard ukr lang) they will lagh.. or angry... because some ukr words have bad meanings if to say them like russian words.. it's a bit confuse..really ... *sorry for my poor english*

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MadeInUSSR Aug 21, 2005 @ 06:43

I agree with Balamut5. I was born and have been living in Moscow during all my life, but I've visited Ukraine (the Crimea) several times. I don't understand neither spoken nor written Ukrainian at all. My granny is Ukrainian and she often speaks this language with some of your friends, but I don't understand anything. So I think that if you're learning Russian it won't be very easy for you to speak Ukrainian. But everybody in Ukrain understands Russian, so you can speak it there.

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Axiom Aug 19, 2005 @ 13:06

Hi. I think it depends on your abilities. Russian is my native language. I was born in Moscow, lived there for 20 years, never hear/spoke Ukrainian before. Well, my husband is from Ukraine so he speaks both Russian and Ukrainian fluently. We listen to ukrainian music in the car all the time and while I understand SOME words, most of songs make no sense to me until he translates it for me. I also have a friend, also born/raised in Moscow, who understands it much better then I do. I do think that Ukrainian is a very interesting language and it's worth learning, just don't expect to understand it right away just because it has similarities with Russian.

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Ulia77 Aug 16, 2005 @ 19:48

I think if you are fluent in Russian you'll be able to understand Ukrainian in essential.. But.. I wonder if you know Russian well why do you need Ukrainian? Because all people lived in Ukrainia speak Russian.. So if you want to go there it will be enough for you to speak Russian.. Besides now the most of people lived there don't speak Ukrainian - their language is the mix of Russian and Ukrainian..

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Jane_74 Aug 16, 2005 @ 00:08

You're right, but they are close enough that learning one makes the job of learning the other a lot easier.

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zhiguli Aug 09, 2005 @ 06:12

Well, yes, there are many words in common, but nobody will argue that several words don't make languages equal

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Balamut5 Aug 08, 2005 @ 21:39

I'm studying both and I find that they are quite similar, at least as far as grammar is concerned. Even with my poor Russian I was able to get up to speed fairly quickly in Ukrainian. There *are* a lot of Polish words in Ukrainian, especially in the Western dialects, but there are enough common words with Russian that you just have to tweak the sounds of Russian words a little to get Ukrainian ones e.g. привет (Russian) привіт (Ukrainian) спасибо (Russian) спасибі (Ukrainian) so it's easy to get confused. In Eastern Ukraine they speak a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian called 'surzhik', and near the western border they speak Rusyn, which is a mix of Ukrainian and Slovak (though I've met Rusyns who insist it's a separate language).

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zhiguli Aug 08, 2005 @ 06:27

Hello, Please, don't believe that Russian and Ukrainian languages are similar. That's not true. I was born and raised in Russian and wasn't in contact with Ukrainian language at all. I think nobody will argue that I speak Russian fluently :), and at the same time, I don't understand Ukrainian at all. If you want my input, then Ukrainian language has much more in common with Polish, especially in western parts of the country (yeah, I've been to Ukraine a couple of times). Ukrainian and Polish has similarities like Moldovian and Roumanian; they have a lot of words in common, though different pronunciation; anyway they can speak to each other after a little practice. When I look back on Russian and Ukrainian... well, I don't see similarities at all :). You will never hear from Russian that they understand Ukrainian completely. Otherwise, many-many Ukrainians do understand Russian language, because they were taught in two languages, that's it. Besides, the eastern and south of Ukraine speak Russian mostly and western part - Ukrainian. So, my advise, study Russian and Polish and you will be perfectly well in Ukraine.

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Balamut5 Aug 08, 2005 @ 04:43

These languages are vrey similar, but you shold know one of them FLUENTLY for understanding the other. I speak both and I understand 60 percent of written Czech, 80- of written Polish. Could understand smth of Serbian or Croatian. But they both are very difficult to learn, because there is much slang in both. Ukranian is easier in phonetics. ;-)

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Teeeeemu Jul 12, 2005 @ 21:59

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Stuck Jul 12, 2005 @ 05:54

Scholars divide the Slavic languages into three main branches: East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic. Since Polish language belongs to the West Slavic branch, and Ukrainian and Russian belong to the East Slavic branch along with Belarusian and Rusyn languages, it is safe to say that Ukrainian language is more similar to Russian than it is to Polish language. Nevertheless, if you speak Russian fluently, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to understand a vast majority of the Ukrainian language. Belarusian language is even more similar to Russian than Ukrainian is, yet Russian speaking people have a difficult time understanding Belarusian language. I speak Russian, Belarusian, and Polish languages, thus, I can understand 80% (sometimes more) of Ukrainian without having studied the language. My professional opinion is that Russian language is the most useful one to learn. It doesn't matter where you go in the former USSR, people will be able to communicate with you if you speak Russian, and not Ukrainian or Belarusian languages.

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SpeakRussianNow Sept 20, 2005 @ 08:36

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How similiar are Russian and Ukrainian?

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