Welcome to the first lesson in our beginner's course on the Russian alphabet!
The Russian alphabet, also known as the Cyrillic alphabet, consists of 33 letters (11 vowels, 20 consonants, and 2 pronunciation signs).
Learning the Russian alphabet is your first essential step in learning Russian. Helpfully, learning the Russian alphabet will mean that you will be able to read not only Russian, but also other Slavonic languages, like Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, and Serbian.
What’s more, though of course it’s an initial challenge to pick up a new alphabet, you’ll soon find that the Russian alphabet makes pronouncing the Russian language relatively easy. Russian words almost always sound exactly as they are written. That means your Russian pronunciation will likely be much more advanced than if you were speaking another foreign language.
Here’s the Russian alphabet in its upper and lower case letter pairs:
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
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
And here’s a complete table of the Russian alphabet with how the letters look and sound:
| Letter | Name | English sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | a | "a" in the word "father" or "car" | два = two |
| Б б | be | "b" in "bat" | оба = both |
| В в | ve | "v" in "vet" | вот = here |
| Г г | ge | "g" in "go" | год = year |
| Д д | de | "d" in "dog" | да = yes |
| Е е | ye | "ye" in "yes" | не = not |
| Ё ё | yo | "yo" in "yonder" | ёж = hedgehog |
| Ж ж | zhe | No English letter for this sound. Like "s" in "measure" or like "g" in "beige" | жук = beetle |
| З з | ze | "z" in "zoo" | зной = heat |
| И и | ee | "i" in "taxi" | или = or |
| Й й | и краткое (short i) | Used in diphthongs (two adjacent vowels in one syllable). E.g. "oй" is like "oy" in "boy" or "aй" is like "igh" in "sigh" | мой = my |
| К к | ka | "k" in "kitten" | кто = who |
| Л л | el | "l" in "love" | ли = whether |
| М м | em | "m" in man | меч = sword |
| Н н | en | "n" in "no" | но = no |
| О о | o | "o" in "bore" | он = he |
| П п | pe | "p" in "pot" | под = under |
| Р р | er | "r" in "run" | река = river |
| С с | es | "s" in "see" | если = if |
| Т т | te | "t" in "tap" | тот = that |
| У у | oo | "oo" in "boot" | уже = already |
| Ф ф | ef | "f" in "fat" | форма = form |
| Х х | kha | "h" in "hello" | дух = spirit |
| Ц ц | tse | "ts" sound in "sits" | конец = end |
| Ч ч | che | "ch" in "church" | час = hour |
| Ш ш | sha | "sh" in shut | ваш = your |
| Щ щ | shcha | No English letter for this sound. щ sounds like щ with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. It sounds like the shch in the words "fresh cheese" | щека = cheek |
| ъ | твёрдый знак (hard sign) | No sound; indicates a slight pause between two syllables. Rarely used | объект = object |
| ы | ih | "i" in or "ill". (Your tongue is a bit further back in your mouth than for the standard "ee" - sounds a little like "ui") | ты = you |
| ь | мягкий знак (soft sign) | No sound; makes the previous letter 'soft.' This is called palatization - the process of pronouncing a consonant in which you move the tongue close to the hard palate (roof of your mouth) | весь = all |
| Э э | e | "e" in "fed" | это = this |
| Ю ю | yoo | "u" in "universe" (sounds just like the English word, "you") | юг = south |
| Я я | ya | "ya" in "yard" | ряд = row |
Writing cursive Russian is one of life’s great joys. The way Cyrillic letters line up is really a thing of beauty. That being said, not everyone who learns Russian decides to learn how to write in cursive – and that’s ok. All the same, here’s how to write all the letters in the Russian alphabet in cursive script:
As you’d expect, the layout of the computer keyboard is different for the Russian alphabet. There are two main Russian keyboards that you can use: the main Cyrillic “ЙЦУКЕН” keyboard or the phonetic Russian “ЯШЕРТЫ” keyboard.
The main Cyrillic keyboard has the letters “ЙЦУКЕН” in the top left where the US-English keyboard has “QWERTY.” This is the standard keyboard used by Russians. If you use a public computer in Russia, this is the keyboard that will come up. It’s helpful to know this, but often Russian language learners instead opt to use the phonetic Russian “ЯШЕРТЫ” keyboard.
Here are two ways you can set up the main Russian keyboard on your computer:
To use the Russian phonetic keyboard, type the letters from the standard US-English "QWERTY" keyboard based on how they sound phonetically in Russian.
Here are two ways you can set up the Russian phonetic keyboard on your computer:
