What Alphabet Does Russia Use

The Russian alphabet is piece of cake to learn! Learning the alphabet is the first step to learning the Russian language. Even if you don't program to learn the language, knowing the alphabet is great for travelling because you lot tin read all the street and shop signs. It may seem daunting to acquire a new alphabet, but information technology is relatively piece of cake. In fact, the peachy thing about Russian is that almost all words tin can be sounded out as they are written. Unlike English where the pronunciation of a word may not exist articulate from its written form. Russian likewise has one letter to ane sound, unlike English where 2 letters often make one sound. (Example "sh").

Either before or after this lesson nosotros recommend you impress the alphabet table, and stick it upward adjacent to the computer (or around the house), to aid yous with the following lessons.

The Russian alphabet is besides known as the Cyrillic alphabet. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. 11 vowels, 20 consonants, and ii pronunciation signs. Here is what the Russian alphabet looks like (in lexicon order).

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

Now let'southward have a look at these letters in detail. For your reference we will make some notes virtually unusual mitt-written forms, however this will be covered in another lesson so don't worry likewise much however.

Russian letters that are (nearly) the aforementioned.

А а - Pronounced like the "a" in the discussion "father" or "machine". It is non the 'apartment' "a" audio y'all sometimes hear in words similar "cat" or "flat".

К к - Pronounced similar the "k" in "kitten" or "kangaroo". This letter of the alphabet replaces the english language "c" sound in words like "cat".

М м - Pronounced like the "k" in man. (Note: Unlike english, the hand-written "м" should always kickoff from the bottom)

O o - When stressed, it is pronounced similar the "o" in "diameter". When un-stressed information technology is pronounced more like the letter of the alphabet "a". (Encounter later notes.)

Т т - Pronounced like the "t" in "tap". (Notation: The hand-written (and italic) course is "т". It should always showtime from the peak, as it looks quite similar to the letter "м")

Russian letters that await like english letters just sound dissimilar.

(These are the nigh important to learn then y'all don't become them mixed up.)

В в - Pronounced similar the "5" in "vet". (Equivalent to the english letter "v").

Е е - Pronounced like the "ye" in "yes".

Н н - Pronounced like the "n" in "no". (Equivalent to the english letter "n").

Р р - Pronounced similar the "r" in "run", but it is rolled. (Equivalent to the english letter of the alphabet "r").

С с - Pronounced similar the "southward" in "see". (Equivalent to the english letter "s"). (It might help to remember that it's used like the "s" sound in the english words "centre" and "cent".)

У у - Pronounced similar the "oo" in "boot" or "root".

Х х - Pronounced similar the "h" in "hello". However, this is oft pronounced more like the "ch" in the Scottish "Loch" or High german "Bach", or the mexican pronunciation of "10" in "Mexico".

Russian letters that look unusual, merely accept familiar sounds

Б б - Pronounced similar the "b" in "bat". (Equivalent to the english language alphabetic character "b").

Г г - Pronounced similar the "thousand" in "go". (Equivalent to the english alphabetic character "g").

Д д - Pronounced like the "d" in "dog". (Equivalent to the english alphabetic character "d").

З з - Pronounced like the "z" in "zoo". (Equivalent to the english letter "z").

И и - Pronounced similar the "i" in "taxi". (Sometimes equivalent to the english language letter "i", the short 'ee' sound.). (Note: The manus-written class for "и" looks a niggling like the english "u").

Л л - Pronounced similar the "l" in "beloved". (Equivalent to the english language letter "l").

П п - Pronounced similar the "p" in "pot". (Equivalent to the english alphabetic character "p").

Ф ф - Pronounced like the "f" in "fat". (Equivalent to the english letter "f").

Э э - Pronounced like the "due east" in "fed".

New Russian letters and sounds

(The sounds will exist familiar, simply they don't have their ain letter in English language).

Ю ю - Pronounced like the "u" in "universe". (Pronounced much like the english word "you").

Я я - Pronounced like the "ya" in "yard".

Ё ё - Pronounced like "yo" in "yonder". (Note: In mod Russian you lot may detect this letter just written as Е е.)

Ж ж - Similar "southward" in "measure", "pleasance" or "fusion" or similar "grand" in color "beige". (Every bit at that place is no english symbol for this sound, it is usually represented as "zh")

Ц ц - Similar to the "ts" sound in "sits" or "its".

Ч ч - Pronounced similar the "ch" in "fries" or "church" .

Ш ш - Pronounced like the "sh" in shut.

Щ щ - Pronounced like "sh" but with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Try putting your tongue in the aforementioned position equally y'all would to say "ch" but say "sh" instead. English speakers may find it hard to define the difference between "ш" and "щ".

Ы ы - Pronounced similar the "i" in "chip" or "ill". (Said with your tongue slightly dorsum in your mouth.)

Й й - This letter is used to form diphthongs. So "oй" is like the "oy" sound in "male child" or "aй" is like the "igh" in "sigh".

Pronunciation Symbols

(These messages have no sound on their own, but are nonetheless considered messages.).

Ъ ъ - The 'Hard Sign' is rarely used. Information technology indicates a slight pause between sylables.

Ь ь - The 'Soft Sign' makes the previous letter 'soft'. Think of the "p" sound in the word "pew". (Try inflecting a very slight "y" audio onto letter earlier it.)

A note about vowels

You lot may have noticed that there are oftentimes 2 forms of a vowel, hard and soft. It may help to note the corresponding vowels.

А ("a")	Я ("ya")
Э ("due east")	Е ("ye")
У ("oo")	Ю ("yoo")
О ("o")	Ё ("yo")

Ы and И are corresponding vowels but don't really follow this pattern.
Й is also considered a vowel

The "y" sound is always pronounced. It may take some time to go used to pronouncing it with consonants. Effort the following:

Нет (No) - Pronounced "nyet". This is one syllable.
Семь (Seven) - Pronounced "syem".
Пять (Five) - Pronounced "pyat"
Метрo (Metro, surreptitious railway) - Pronounced "mye-tro".

Click the green play icon to listen to the give-and-take pronounced in Russian.

Spelling Rule i.

There is a rule for spelling in russian you should keep in mind: "Never write Ы, Ю, or Я after the letters 'Г, К, Ж, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ' instead use И, У, А".

It is not important to worry about this yet, but information technology will help yous understand how things are spelt in later lessons.

A note almost stress.

In most languages, including English language, some syllables are emphasised more than others. A good case would be the word "photograph", where the first syllable is stressed. Compare this to "Photography" where the 2d symbol is stressed. Phonetically the sound of the vowel changes.

Russian works in much the aforementioned manner. Withal in some words information technology'southward of import to know which syllable is stressed, this is considering the alphabetic character "o" is pronounced very differently depending on whether it'south stressed or not. Other stressed vowels are of import, but if yous only remember the "o" rule, then you volition nevertheless be able to speak well. Once y'all first to hear Russians speak, y'all will be able to re-create the style they are pronouncing words. (On this site we will signal a stressed vowel by underlining it. However, nosotros will only exercise this to the first occurrences of a word. One syllable words are causeless to be stressed.)

Take notice of the following examples:

До свидания (proficient-farewell) - Pronounced "da-svee-da-nee-ye". (The до is pronounced as if it is role of the next give-and-take).

Спасибо (thank-you) - Pronounced "spa-see-ba".

Да (yep) - Pronounced "da".

Нет (no) - Pronounced "nyet".

сто (100) - Pronounced "sto".

Пока (Cheerio)

Плохо (Bad)

Хорошо (Adept)

Some Listening Exercise

In that location are many more than examples in the following lessons that also accept Russian sound that you can listen to. It is of import y'all learn the sounds by listening to the Russian audio in the following lessons. If you learn past listening, your speach will be much clearer.

At that place are hours of audio on this site. Here are some case sentences to get yous started. Don't worry nigh learning the words, merely endeavour to learn the sounds of the letters.

Моя мама любит музыку - (My female parent loves music)

шесть книг - (6 books)

семь газет - (seven newspapers)

восемь зданий - (eight buildings)

девять собак - (nine dogs)

десять студентов - (x students)

сто рублей - (one hundred roubles)

сто долларов - (one hundred dollars)

Video

Utilise this video to assistance you learn the alphabet. Accept me to YouTube.

Russian Hanwriting

If y'all need a little assist with your Russian handwritting try watching this niggling video (YouTube): Handwriting Video

Conclusion

You accept now seen how the whole alphabet works and is pronounced. It is time to practice, go to the exercises section of this lesson. Here you will exist able to practice your new skills, reading words that are almost the same equally the English equivalent. Yous may likewise wish to print a copy of the alphabet tabular array for reference in future lessons.

Y'all may as well like to try our Russian Language Trainer to help you memorise what you have learnt in this Russian lesson.

Alphabet Table
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