Learn the Russian alphabet

The Russian alphabet is Cyrillic, not Latin like in the English language. Once you learn each letter, you can read Russian. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters.

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

To help you learn the Russian alphabet, we divided all Russian letters into four groups:

• Six letters that are the same as English
• Six letters that are the same as English but pronounced differently
• Eight letters that look different but pronounced similar
• Thirteen letters that are completely different

Letters that are the same as English

Letters that are the same as English but pronounced differently

Letters that look different but pronounced similar

Letters that are completely different

Non-vocalized letters Ь and Ъ

There are two non-vocalized letters in the Russian alphabet: the soft sign ь and the hard sign ъ.

Think of the [f] sound in the word “few” and you will get an idea of soft consonants. Pronounce the consonant followed by the soft sign softly. The soft sign is important: it can distinguish the meanings. For example, the word "брат" means "brother", while the word "брать" means "to take".

The hard sign indicates a slight pause between syllables. It is used between the prefix and the root of words and before vowels ё , е , я, ю. For example: объём (volume), отъезд (departure).

The letter Й

Russian semi-vowel й, also called short i, usually precedes or follows a vowel as in the word "английский" (English). This letter usually starts loanwords, for example, йогурт (yogurt), йога (yoga).

The letter Ы

Ы may seem strange to an English-speaking person. This letter can never start a word. It is used in the root or at the end of words: дым (smoke), мосты (bridges plural).

As you see, the Russian alphabet is not so difficult as it may seem at first. If you learn the alphabet, you can read Russian.