The Difference Between Ukrainian and russian Languages
Due to the recent events happening, some interesting questions such as “What’s the difference between Ukrainian and russian language?” and “How different is Ukrainian from russian?” have been raised. And if a couple of years ago the most interesting topic to discuss would be russian vs Ukrainian girls, now we better talk about language differences.
What language do Ukrainians speak?
Although Ukraine’s official state language is Ukrainian, Ukrainians have always spoken both russian and Ukrainian due to many historical and cultural reasons. But nonetheless, even when you meet Ukrainian-speaking people, they’ll understand you if you speak russian with them. And it works both ways.
Interesting fact – more than 30% of Ukrainians consider russian as their first language. That, again, happened according to many demographical, historical, and political reasons. But still, those people, even if they can not write or speak the Ukrainian language without mistakes, understand the Ukrainian language perfectly well.
Ukrainian vs russian language: what’s the difference?
Ukrainian vs russian language is the most favorite topic among thousands of people in the world nowadays. People search the Internet in case to find some answers and dip into the history of Ukraine to find more. We picked the top evident differences between Ukrainian and russian languages:
- The major part of the vocabulary. Even if some words can be spelled the same, the meaning can be different. Moreover, if a Ukrainian person speaks Ukrainian with a russian person, the second one will barely understand half of what was said.
- The difference in letters. While most of the letters in both languages are the same, they still both have their own unique letters that distinguish them from each other, like ‘ъ’ in russian language and ‘ї’ and ‘i’ in Ukrainian.
- The age difference. The Ukrainian language existed hundreds of years before the russian. Many historic documents prove that the Ukrainian language, and Ukrainian state, appeared earlier. Moreover, the Ukrainian language is considered one of the oldest languages in the world and carries one of the richest histories.
- Pronunciation is a big thing. And lastly, the Ukrainian language sounds much softer and more melodious than russian. You just need to hear it once to compare and understand the total difference between Ukrainian and russian. Almost every year the Ukrainian language takes third place after French and Italian as the most beautiful languages in the world.
After you do deeper research on the topic, you’ll understand clearly that Ukrainian and russian aren’t the same language. The difference between the two languages is huge if you try to look at them from different perspectives, not just knowing the fact those languages are both from the Cyrillic group.
Top tips for communication with a Ukrainian woman
When you meet Ukrainian girl online, you’ll probably wonder what are the best ways to communicate with her and how to make all your conversations smoother and more pleasant. To be 100% successful, we prepared helpful tips for you.
Don’t confuse the languages
That might be not the worst mistake you make, but still one of the offensive ones. So try not to mix those languages up pretending it to be one language.
Don’t equal the languages
Ukrainian and russian languages aren’t similar, so don’t even mention to your Ukrainian lady about their likenesses. The Ukrainian language has a much longer history and vocabulary than the russian one, which Ukrainian people are very proud of.
Read about the cultural differences
If you’re seriously headed to tie yourself with a Ukrainian girl, read more about cultural differences between Ukrainian and russian people. Even if you do know quite a bit, it’s still not enough, so take your time and do your research.
Learn a couple of phrases in Ukrainian
Ukrainian women are happy and highly appreciate it when their foreign boyfriend tries to speak their native language. They find it sexy and appealing. Google how to say “I like you”, “You cook wonderfully”, and “You look amazing” in Ukrainian as well as many other cute phrases in Ukrainian, and your girlfriend will be conquered.
Ask her questions
Never hesitate to ask her questions about anything that interests you in the Ukrainian language. Local people are always there to teach you some funny specific Ukrainian phrases and a couple of Ukrainian best jokes. Again, asking your lady about her native language will attract her to you even more than before.
Benefits of learning Ukrainian over russian today
If you’re on the topic, then you probably heard about the recent trend to look over your genealogical tree to find someone who might be from Ukraine and may have given you at least some Ukrainian blood and bravery. In recent months it really became a huge deal and now continues to spread.
The Ukrainian language is prospering and seems to be more popular nowadays, while russian language is associated with terror, murder, and war in most people’s minds. Russians aren’t welcomed in the massive majority of countries, so maybe there is no obvious need to learn it at all.
As you may already guess, Ukrainian and russian aren’t the same languages. They share a common vocabulary in most cases, but still, the differences are really huge to not notice them. Moreover, the history of the Ukrainian language goes a long way back to the X century, when it was first invented and further extended and spread all over the country. Ukrainian is not an easy language to teach to American people, but still very enjoyable to do for loved ones from Ukraine.
FAQ:
Ukrainian and russian aren’t the same language. Despite sharing the Cyrillic script, Ukrainian and Russian are two distinct languages. When you start to listen carefully to both pronunciations, you’ll notice a huge contrast between these two languages.
There is no problem for Ukrainians to understand a Russian-speaking person 100% at all, but there is almost no chance to play the opposite because a russian would never comprehend at least 70% of what a Ukrainian has said.