Lesson 6

Russian keyboard / Русская клавиатура

The standard QWERTY keyboard, with its 26 letters, cannot accommodate the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet. To address this discrepancy, the Russian layout assigns non-letter keys to the additional seven letters.

The standard Russian (or Cyrillic) typewriter and keyboard layout is called ЙЦУКЕН or ФЫВА (named after the sequences of Russian letters in the top or the second row). An alternative layout is the transliterated or phonetic keyboard. It uses the similarity between the shapes of English and Russian letters (e.g., W – Ш or Q – Я).

It might be a good idea to stick to the standard keyboard since it is very common. On the other hand, the transliterated keyboard layout makes more sense for a speaker of English. However, if you decide to use the transliterated layout, keep in mind that it will be hard to type on a laptop where the standard Cyrillic layout is used.

To install the Russian layout in Windows use the Settings feature where you find Time & Language tab with the Language item in it. Click on the Add a Language button. Then select Russian from the menu and choose the layout you prefer.

The standard Russian keyboard uses the following non-letter keys of the QWERTY layout to make up for the missing seven letters:

↑

[

;

]

If you choose to install a mnemonic Russian keyboard layout, also called ‘transliterated’, there are a few varieties of this layout. There might be a slight difference in the key assignments depending on the software used for the layout.

It may be helpful to buy Russian keyboard stickers and place them on your computer keyboard.

When choosing stickers, pay attention to whether they are transparent or not.

Each non-transparent sticker contains two letters—a Latin and a Cyrillic one — corresponding to the standard keyboard layout. Since they cover the entire key, non-transparent stickers are suitable only for the standard layout (ЙЦУКЕН).

In contrast, transparent stickers typically display only Cyrillic letters, allowing them to be placed on any key without obscuring the original letter. This makes them compatible with any layout you want to create.

If you choose transparent stickers, pay attention to the brightness of the letters. If the letters are not sufficiently bright — for instance, if their color is pale yellow — they may be difficult to see on the keys.

Core Russian online