In Ukrainian, when consonants are written doubled, they are held for longer than if they were only written as a single consonant. In linguistics this feature is called gemination.
English does not do this within a word. The pronunciation of the first and second “g” sound in “baggage” are the same even though the first one is doubled.
English does have this feature between word boundaries however. Think of the difference between “night rain” and “night train”. The “t” sound in the second example is held longer.
In Ukrainian, gemination does exist within a word. Just remember to hold the pronunciation a little longer when the consonant is written doubled, like in the “night train” example above. This will be shown in the pronunciation by doubling the consonant.
PRACTICE
Try to read these Ukrainian words. The English translation is given next to each word. The correct pronunciations are given in the answers below.
1. плаття (dress)
2. обличчя (face)
3. волосся (hair)
ANSWERS
1. pláttya
2. oblýččya
3. volóssya