3.1 - More related words
In this unit the aim is to further your understanding of Ukrainian at the word level, and to enable you to start understanding words used in simple sentences.
In the previous unit you practised working out the meaning of a word by associating it with a related word in English (or another language). You were introduced to Ukrainian words which are very similar to English, and whose meaning is easy to guess.
On this page you can see words which are also related, but whose meaning may not be as obvious. For most loan words, however, it is easy to guess the meanings if you know the rules and are prepared to think laterally! Some of the equivalents (including the less obvious ones) are given below.
| Ukrainian letters | English equivalents | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| є | e, ye, je, he | Єгипет, Єреван, Єрусалим, єретик |
| ї | yi, ji, i | героїзм |
| ю | yu, ju | Юпітер |
| я | ya, ja | яхта, Японія |
| і | i, y | іглу, фізика |
| й | y, j, i | йога, Йордан, йод |
| ав | au | Кавказ |
| єв | eu | Євфрат, Європа |
| в | v, w, b (esp.in words loaned from Greek) | ваніль, Вашингтон, варвар |
| г | h, g | гелій, географія |
| ж | j | жакет |
| ц | c, ts, t | центр, цунамі, інерція |
| х | ch | хлор, хаос |
| ш | s, sh | школа, пошта |
| ф | f, ph | фінанси, філософія, |
| -ія | -y, -е, -ion, -ia | комедія, лінія, депресія, Австрія |
| -ій | -ium, -ius | плутоній, геній |
| -а | zero ending, -е | комета, дата |
| -ація | -ation | організація |
N.B. There is no Ukrainian equivalent of the English "th". This is usually rendered in Ukrainian as ф (міфологія) or т (атлет).
To practise recognising related words go to Exercise 3.1A.