Translate a Word document into Ukrainian

What Ukrainian changes in a Word document

Moving to Cyrillic is more than a change of alphabet. Ukrainian has its own letters, і, ї, є and ґ, and does not use ы, э, ъ or ё, which belong to Russian. Text containing those four letters, outside a quoted proper name, is not correct Ukrainian.

• The apostrophe is part of the spelling: сім'я (family), п'ять (five), Жан-П'єр for Jean-Pierre. It must not be dropped or turned into an accent.
• Quotation marks are «ялинки» with no inner spaces, and „лапки“ for a quote within a quote. English curly quotes or French « » with spaces from the source are replaced.
• Numbers and dates: decimal comma and a space as thousands separator (12 500,75 грн), dates as 24.08.2025 or 24 серпня 2025 р., month names in lower case, times as 14:30.
• Length: Ukrainian words are often long (відповідальність, responsibility) and text grows compared with an English original. Narrow table cells and fixed-size text boxes overflow first.
• Register: in a letter to one person, the polite 'you' is capitalised (Ви, Вам) and the salutation uses the vocative case (Шановний пане…, Шановна пані…).
• Place names: Київ, Львів, Харків, never the Russian forms Киев, Львов, Харьков. The same applies in English: Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv.

Four plural forms and mail merge fields

Ukrainian matches the noun to the number in four categories: 1 додаток (one attachment), 2 додатки, 5 додатків, 1,5 додатка for fractions. The last digit decides: 21 додаток goes back to the singular, 22 додатки takes the second form, 11 додатків the third. In a fixed sentence the right form is chosen during translation. The trouble starts when the number changes from one copy to the next.

If your file is a mail merge template containing {Count} attachments enclosed, no single translation is right for every value: додатки works for 2, 3 or 4, but not for 5 or 21.

• Take the number out of the sentence before translation: Number of attachments: {Count} becomes Кількість додатків: {Count}, correct whatever the value.
• Do the same for gender. English 'registered' is neutral, but Ukrainian must choose зареєстрований or зареєстрована next to a {FirstName} field. A neutral wording such as Статус: зареєстровано avoids the agreement.
• Lone words in table cells ('Total', 'Qty', 'Due') are worth expanding in the source if their meaning is unclear: Ukrainian has no all-purpose equivalent and has to pick one.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Manuce translates paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, and text boxes. A merged cell is translated and charged only once. The .docx is rebuilt text run by text run: fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italic, styles, numbering and table widths stay as in the original. An automatic check then compares the form of the translated document with the original and flags any difference.

You receive the file in its original format with Ukrainian text in place of the source, plus a Word version, a PDF and the plain text. The original layout is included in the price. Ukrainian carries a ×1.25 coefficient on the per-word rate.

• Fonts are not changed. If your document uses a brand typeface with no Cyrillic glyphs, Word substitutes another font on screen, often only for letters such as ґ or ї. Check this before uploading.
• Automatic fields are not recalculated. Tables of contents and cross-references keep working; because Ukrainian text runs longer, pagination shifts, and updating the fields in Word recalculates the page numbers.
• No sworn translation. A certificate, diploma or court decision for Ukrainian or other authorities usually requires a translation certified by a sworn translator. Manuce does not provide one.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Before uploading

• Make sure your fonts cover Ukrainian Cyrillic. Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman and Cambria do; type ґ ї є і in each style you use to confirm it.
• Enlarge, or set to automatic height, any text box or table cell that is already full.
• Reword sentences built around a variable number or name, as described above.
• List the spellings you must keep: your company name, and personal names already transliterated in official Ukrainian documents such as passports or contracts, so they come out identically.

After delivery

• Search the document for ы, э, ъ and ё: outside a quotation, any hit points to a Russian form to correct.
• Update the fields to realign the table of contents and cross-references.
• Set the text's proofing language to Ukrainian in Word so the spell checker works; otherwise every word may be underlined.
• Scan tables and headers for overflow, and check apostrophes and quotation marks in proper names.

In practice

1. Check that your document's fonts display ґ, ї, є and і, and reword sentences with variable numbers.
2. Upload the .docx: the quote is based on the exact word count.
3. Read the free one-paragraph sample at your chosen level, then pay to start the translation.
4. Open the translated .docx, update the fields and check tables, headers and text boxes.