Здравствуйте! This Ukrainian course was developed by the U.S. Peace Corps for its volunteers going to Ukrainian. It can be useful as a primer for learning the basics of the Ukrainian language. You can listen and follow along to each lesson or download the whole course directly.

Download Full Course (PDF and Audio Files)

Lesson 1 – Introduction

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Welcome to the Peace Corps Ukraine language lessons!

Ukrainian is the national language of Ukraine, and these “Survival Ukrainian” files will help you get a head start in learning the language and using colloquial phrases that will help you get by your first weeks in Ukraine.

We recommend that you listen to the audio files and repeat while reading the language script. It will be useful if you use these files for 10-15 minute a day.

In the language script we use the transliteration system which will help you to pronounce Ukrainian, even without any background in Slavic languages.

The letters are transliterated from the Ukrainian alphabet in accordance to its sound in English. The letter ь (soft sign) has no sound and will be represented in the transliteration as an apostrophe [’].

Unlike English the Ukrainian alphabet is absolutely phonetic: each letter has a single pronunciation in every usage.

The lessons do not have to be in any particular order. After you complete the first lesson, you may choose any topic of interest or importance to you. We won’t discuss grammatical topics in these lessons. You will learn grammar during the language classes in Pre-Service Training in Ukraine.

Ukrainian in a Nutshell

It belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European language family.

The Ukrainians use the Cyrillic alphabet. There are differences between the Cyrillic and Latin sounds and letters, but they are small and you will learn to recognize them quickly.

The Ukrainian alphabet is comprised of 33 letters.

Stress in Ukrainian can fall on any syllable in a word. The stressed part of the word will be marked in bold in transliteration and the word itself. One word has only one stressed syllable which is no longer that others. Usually the stress is indicated in dictionaries.

We hope you will enjoy the Ukrainian language lessons and wish you good luck with your learning

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Lesson 2 – Ukrainian Alphabet and Pronunciation

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As you can see and hear, some Ukrainian letters have equivalent sound in English but look quite different:

Perhaps  the  most  confusing  are  the  letters  that  look  like  Latin  but  in  Cyrillic represent different sounds.

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Lesson 3 – Greetings and Farewells

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Greetings

Farewells

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Lesson 4 – Useful Phrases

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Lesson 5 – Getting Acquainted

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Lesson 6 – Family

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Lesson 7 – Talking About Yourself

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Lesson 8 – Food

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Lesson 9 – Apartment

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Lesson 10 – Numbers

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Lesson 11 – At the Store

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Lesson 12 – Transport

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Lesson 13 – In the City

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Lesson 14 – Post Office

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Lesson 15 – Signs

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Lesson 16 – Emergencies

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Lesson 17 – Personal Pronouns

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Lesson 18 – Professions

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Lesson 19 – Days of the Week and Months

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Lesson 20 – Question Words

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Original Course Text

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