In the preface to his Russian-Ukrainian dictionary, Hrinchenko noted that his publication used "in Ukrainian parallels" spelling from the "Dictionary of the Russian Language" compiled by the Second Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, as well as the Ukrainian orthography of 1904 to be adopted in Transnistrian Ukraine.
[3] Hrinchenko adopted elements of the 1904 spelling such as the use of йо, ьо and apostrophes, in particular the use of the apostrophe and after labial consonants before є, ї, я, ю, that use only і after soft consonants, and so on.
Contrary to the orthography adopted in 1904 in Transnistrian Ukraine NTSh in Lviv, Hrinchenko printed a large group of common names, according to the Dnieper pronunciation, with the initial letter и: идол, ижиця, икати, илкий, инакий and derived from it, индик, иржа, Ирід (Ирод), искра, ич.
[5] Ilarion Ohiienko said about the role of B. Hrinchenko: "The spelling of this dictionary was accepted in all Ukrainian editions and publications.
For example, in the Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of geographical terminology, compiled by the Nature Commission of the Ukrainian Society of School Education (1917), the apostrophe is not used.