How similiar are Russian and Ukrainian?

72% GOOD (43 votes)

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!

Yorumlar

victor_onl profile picture victor_onlJuly 2017

1)Привет, меня зовут Виктор.

1) Привіт, мене звати Віктор 

 

2) Благодарю, я даже не думал, что может так получиться. 

2) Дякую, я навіть не гадав, що може так вийти. 

 

They are similar and different in the same time. The grammar, the ways of expression, something you can express in Russian but in Ukrainian it will be expressed differently. I cannot say if you study one of them it will automatic count the second one in your language list. No at all. But, it will help you with the pile of vocabulary. And you easily recognize words in texts, and with some practising you will be able recognize them during a pronunciation.

In the west part of Ukraine, the language is a bit different, it got some influencing of Polish and other languages. The official one is mostly close to Kiev version.  In schools, media, tv, you can hear Ukrainian what it sounds like, and if you understand it clearly so you will have no problem to understand it at other parts of Ukraine (Maybe you will have some complicities in the west of the country, but I had no problems as I have been there and spoke with locals)

With Russian it looks like if you know the language you will be able to understand it in any countries where it speaks(In some cities or regions Russian can sound various and some kind of different in the accent, but if you know Russian you will be able to understand the local version of it)

jurij_bory profile picture jurij_boryJanuary 2017

Like English and Dutch.

Voliglot profile picture VoliglotOctober 2016
I am a native Ukrainian speaker.
Both are Slavic language, and of course, they are quite similar to each other.
But, Russian has a lot of Finn and Turkic influences, so you will find a lot of words which are not similar to their Ukrainian equivalents.
In both languages, you sometimes have to check the spelling of a word, it's not enough to hear it, but in Russian this occures much more often (in Ukrainian vowels are pronounced clearly, even if they are not stressed, as Stany has written).
As Laloosh told you, there is a part of Ukraine that mainly speak Russian. Ukraine was part of the Tsardom and then of the Soviet Union, and you might find the same situation in other countries which also were.
If you first study Ukrainian, you will be quite able to understand Russian, but if you study Russian, you won't be able to understand Ukrainian! If you want to know anything else, go ahead
vincent profile picture vincentOctober 2016
Thanks ! Very interesting
NikaAndrey profile picture NikaAndreySeptember 2012
Written Ukranian is different, but it is not difficult! In reality Ukraine is divided in two parts (Eastern-Russian speaking and Western-Ukranian speaking). I am ready to help you with you practise on Ukranian or Russian. Let write me and I will help you. I will be glad to help you and receive English practise.
tomilee159 profile picture tomilee159June 2012
Hi. I can help you with it. Concerning me, i'm ukrainian 21 years old man. My english is at spoken level and i want improve it to speak fluently in english. I have been studying it for almost 1 year. My skype is tomilee159
Laloosh profile picture LalooshJune 2011

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.