Your H Might Come Out as a Different Letter

Ukrainian's letter 'г' is a breathy, voiced sound similar in spirit to English H, which is actually helpful — but the closely related G sound in Ukrainian can sometimes get swapped with H out of habit, especially since some Ukrainian dialects use a softer G than English does. This can cause words like 'hotel' and 'garden,' or 'hat' and 'got,' to blur together for a listener. English keeps these two sounds firmly separate: H is just breath, with no contact anywhere in your mouth, while G involves the back of your tongue firmly touching the soft part of the roof of your mouth. Try 'hat' versus 'gat' (imagine it), noticing zero tongue contact for H and a clear back-of-tongue closure for G. Two-minute drill: alternate 'hot' and 'got' slowly, checking that H has no contact at all while G does. This small separation keeps your meaning crystal clear.