The fastest way to learn Ukrainian is to spend most of your study time on Ukrainian you can mostly understand. That kind of Ukrainian is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- First Week
I can't read Cyrillic yet.
Learn Cyrillic 40 min. Listen 20 min.
The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters, including Ї, Є and Ґ. Learn them first, and listen to easy Ukrainian while you do, so the sounds start to feel familiar.
- Level 1
I can sound out words but not much else.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short stories with audio, and listen to Season 1 of the Ukrainian Lessons Podcast, which is made for beginners. Review the words you saved, then say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can read simple sentences.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Read short stories while you listen to them, and retell one in a few sentences to a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I can read short stories and messages.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Listen to easy stories told in slow Ukrainian with the subtitles on, then listen to each one again without them. Talk about what you heard for longer.
- Level 4
I can read longer texts about everyday life.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch videos from Suspilne, Ukraine's public broadcaster, with word translations on LingvisPlay. Read news stories in Ukrainian on Global Voices, and check the English version when you get stuck.
- Level 5
I can follow complex topics, but miss some details.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read and watch the news in Ukrainian, and look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I can follow detailed arguments and different writing styles.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Ukrainian novels, listen to audiobooks of classic and modern stories, and talk about them for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Ukrainian?
Ukrainian takes 1,012 class hours, or about 44 weeks of full-time study, to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts Ukrainian in the third of its four groups for English speakers, with Russian, Polish and Czech.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Category I | 30 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Ukrainian, Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv teaches Ukrainian from A1 up to B1 in a six-month course with 720 classroom hours. Each of those hours is 40 minutes long, so the course has 480 full hours of class. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Lviv University A1–B1 (480 hours) | FSI professional fluency (1,012 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 2⅔ years | About 5½ years |
| 7 hours | About 16 months | About 2¾ years |
| 14 hours | About 8 months | About 17 months |
| 28 hours | About 4 months | About 8 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Ukrainian on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Guessing the StressYou can't tell from the spelling which syllable of a Ukrainian word is stressed, and the stress can change the meaning: плачу́ means “I pay,” and пла́чу means “I cry.” Learn each word with its sound.
- Case Tables AloneUkrainian nouns change their endings across seven cases, and endings learned from a table are easy to forget until you meet them in sentences.
- Content Far Too HardA Ukrainian film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Ukrainian app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Ukrainian, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Ukrainian app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Ukrainian in three months?
You can learn Cyrillic and enough Ukrainian to greet people and introduce yourself. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is less than half of the 480 hours in Lviv University's course from A1 up to B1.
How much should I study Ukrainian each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Ukrainian you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Ukrainian hard for English speakers?
Yes, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: Ukrainian is in its third group, and its 44 weeks are about one and a half times the 30 weeks for Spanish. The alphabet is the quick part, and most of the time goes into the words and the case endings, which you pick up fastest from Ukrainian you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The Ukrainian Cyrillic course on this site is also free and needs no account.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Ukrainian alphabet (33 letters)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Preparatory Programs for International Students (UAP-2: A1 up to B1, 720 classroom hours, 40-minute academic hours)
- Wikipedia, Ukrainian phonology (stress is not predictable and can change meaning)
- Wikipedia, Ukrainian grammar (seven cases)
