Russian language Essentials: Russian alphabet
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Russian Language Essentials
Part 1
Russian alphabet / Русский алфавит

The Russian language uses Cyrillic characters. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. Some of them look similar to Latin ones, others not. Some letters are pronounced similar to English ones, others not.

To facilitate memorizing Russian letters we will discuss similarities and differences between Russian and English letters in the next lesson.

Should you be interested in viewing handritten variant of the Russian letters, click here.

 
Symbol
Name
Pronunciation
A a
ah
sun
Б б
be
book
В в
ve
vote
Г г
ge
go
Д д
de
do
Е е
yellow
Ё ё
yo
yoga
Ж ж
zhe
usual
З з
ze
zoo
И и
ee
bean
Й й
eeh kratkoye  (e-short)
yoga, boy
К к
ka
car
Л л
el
look
М м
em
make
Н н
en
name
О о
о
talk
П п
pe
park
Р р
er
[rrr]
С с
es
song
Т т
te
take
У у
u
cool
Ф ф
ef
face
Х х
ha
hand
Ц ц
ts
pizza
Ч ч
che
child
Ш ш
sha
shop
Щ щ
shcha
sure, fresh cheese
Ъ ъ
tvyordyy znak  (hard sign)
no sound
Ы ы
y
as the second "i" in "it is"
Ь ь
myahkiy znak  (soft sign)
no sound
Э э
e
arrow
Ю ю
yu
unit
Я я
ya
yard
The representation of the letters in the alphabet shown above is used in printed texts. You need to be familiar with this form to read articles, subtitles in films, books, and other materials. However, when printed letters are handwritten, native Russian speakers often use simplified versions of certain letters. This applies only to А, Б, Е, Ё, Ж, Л, Р, Ф, and У, while other letters of the alphabet remain unchanged.
Such simplified versions for handwritten printed letters will be shown in the next lesson.