Ukrainian-English Simple Phonetic Transliteration

A simple Ukrainian-to-English (Cyrillic-to-Roman) phonetic transliteration (pronunciation key) is provided in this diagram. It matches Ukrainian letters to their associated English sounds.

This simple schema sounds correct to the ear, and words formed using it can be read aloud almost as quickly as the Cyrillic letters, once you get used to it. However, the resulting text strings may not look correct to those accustomed to more standard Ukrainian transliterations. Hence, the best use of this equivalence table is for informal communication using email editors on systems that don't support Ukrainian characters.

Overall, my algorithm for simple phonetic transliteration from Ukrainian to English is:

• Short vowel sounds in Ukrainian are mapped to single vowels in English
• Long vowel sounds in Ukrainian are mapped to doubled vowels in English
• Any resulting ambiguity is resolved by context (it's an informal system, right?)
• Apostrophes in Ukrainian are retained as apostrophes in English
• The soft sign (m'yakiy znak) in Ukrainian becomes a tilde in English, by analogy to its use in Spanish
• In pronunciation keys for dictionaries, the stressed syllable vowels (accents) should be capitalized
• You need to keep your sense of humor when using it, whether for reading or for writing.

For further information on the official Ukrainian-to-English transliteration, see the

• Ukrainian Legal Terminology Commission transliteration table

Ths page was last updated on July 1, 2001 by bo@shmorhay.com