Russian letters – A guide to the Russian alphabet

Many Russian learners that are not familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet spend a lot of time on just getting used to it. It’s not surprising. While some Russian letters look and sound the same, others are completely different, and third ones look the same but sound completely different.

We decided to write this article to help you to memorize the Russian alphabet faster and easier. It breaks the Russian letters into 5 groups, includes a few mnemonic techniques, as well as reading and listening exercises.

Short historical reference

The history of the Russian alphabet in not very clear and composed out of rare evidence that reached our days. It’s said that in the year 863, a missionary enlightener Cyrill and his brother Methodius created the first Russian alphabet called “глаголица” (glagoleetsa) based on the Greek alphabet.

The Cyrillic alphabet (from the name Cyrill) was the second version of the Russian alphabet and, it’s believed, was created by the followers of Cyrill and Methodius in the beginning of the X century. We don’t have much information about it but it’s known that it included 43 letters.

Russian letters

Modern Russian alphabet includes 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants and two signs that have no sound but change the sound of the preceding consonants. The demonstration includes the printed version of the letters, the coursive, and the hand-written version.

Same look, same sound

Some of the Russian letters won’t cause any difficulties for you, they look and sound practically the same as in English (and many other languages based on the Latin alphabet). These letters are (play the audio and repeat the letters after it):

А а

А а

as a in ask

К к

К к

as k in key

М м

М м

as m in my

О о

О о

as o in more

С с

С с

as C in celebrate or S in so

Т т

Т т

as t in take

Here are your first Russian words that you can easily read right away. Listen to the audio to hear the words and master the pronunciation:

Pretty easy, isn’t it?

New look, familiar sound

The next group of Russian letters is a bit trickier: they look differently, but have an equivalent in English. These letters are:

Б б

Б б

as b in book

Г г

Г г

as g in gate

Д д

Д д

as d in date

З з

З з

as z in zoo

И и

И и

as i in bit or ee in week

Й й

Й й

very short И, as y in boy

Л л

Л л

as l in lot

П п

П п

as p in plant

Ф ф

Ф ф

as f in half or ph in phrase

Э э

Э э

as e in end

Let’s practice what’s we’ve learned just now. Listen to the audio and repeat these Russian words after it:

Same look, different sound

The next group of Russian letters is even more trickier. They look the same as in English, but sound a bit or completely differently. These letters are:

В в

В в

as v in vote

E e

E e

as ye in yes

Н н

Н н

as n in no

Р р

Р р

as Spanish r in burrito

У у

У у

as oo in boom

Х х

Х х

similar to h in hello, more like kh

Read these Russian words to memorize the letters and practice the pronunciation:

New look, new sound

In the fourth group we have the Russian letters that look very new to an English speaker and don’t have a direct equivalent in the English alphabet:

Ё ё

Ё ё

as yo in yogi

Ж ж

Ж ж

usually is denoted as zh and sounds like s in pleasure or g in giraffe

Ц ц

Ц ц

usually is denoted as ts and sounds like z in pizza

Ч ч

Ч ч

as ch in cheese

Ш ш

Ш ш

as sh in shade

Щ щ

Щ щ

soft version of Ш, like in sheep but softer

Ю ю

Ю ю

as you in you

Я я

Я я

as ya in yahoo

ы

ы

something between i and u

Let’s practice now. Listen to the audio and repeat after it.

New look, no sound

The last two letters, as we said earlier, have no sound but change the sound of the preceding consonant. These letter are:

ь

ь

called “soft sign”, makes the preceding consonant softer

ъ

ъ

called “hard sign”, makes the preceding consonant harder

Let’s see how it works. Below you’ll see the pairs of words, with and without soft and hard signs. Listen to the audio and pay attention to the difference in the sound:

Russian pronunciation

After you memorized all the Russian letters, it’s time to learn some pronunciation rules.

Some Russian letters change their sound depending on the position in a word and the letters that surround it. We won’t cover the pronuncation rules here but refer you to a couple of good articles where they are well explained:

– Russian pronunciation rules (vowels)
– Russian pronunciation rules (consonants)

Practice, practice, practice

To help you to memorize the Russian letters faster, we offer you to try this method: take the lyrics of your favorite song and replace some letters or the whole words there with the respective Russian letters.

For example, here is an excerpt from “Yesterday”, the famous song of “Beatles”. The Russian letters are in blue.

Now, when you learned the Russian letters, find out a way to teach yourself Russian with free online learning resources. We wish you good luck and good motivation in learning the Russian language! 🙂