What Ї means
It writes /ji/: a y-glide followed by the “ee” vowel.
In Ukrainian, Ї appears at the start of a word and after another vowel, a soft sign, or an apostrophe. So їсти (“to eat”) begins with a y-glide, unlike іти (“to go”); Україна and мої show the same sound after a vowel.
Why does Ukrainian use Ї?
It keeps the /ji/ sound distinct from plain /i/.
The spelling took shape over time. An early mark for /ji/ appears in the 1073 Izbornik, a handwritten book; the Peresopnytsia Gospel from 1556–1561 has a form close to Ї. Printers tried several marks during the 19th century, before the Kyiv spelling system of 1873 gave Ї a regular role.
The distinction served a practical purpose: one written form for /ji/, another for /i/. Ukrainian spelling was also shaped by political restrictions: the Russian Empire restricted Ukrainian phonetic spelling in the 1880s, and reforms during 1905–1914 moved publications toward the modern standard. As of 2026, the state standard defines Ї as /j/ /i/.
In Ukrainian and Rusyn writing, Ї is an ordinary letter; by itself, it needs language context.
Replacing Ї with І removes the y-glide and can change the word.
Part of the collection
Who writes Ї
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Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
1
Alphabet
Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
1Is Ї used in Rusyn?
Yes. Ї is a letter in Rusyn orthographies. A 2016 romanization table lists it for both Carpatho-Rusyn and Pannonian Rusyn.
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Collections with Ї
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How to type or find Ї
- Also called
- Ukrainian yi · i with two dots
- Search it as
- yi · ji · Cyrillic yi · Ї vs І · Ukrainian keyboard
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Ї\0407Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.