The Russian Language and Alphabet
Alphabet Introduction | Letters identical to English | Letters like English | Familiar Sounds | All Different | Reading Signs | Reading a Menu | Colours in Russian | Numbers in Russian
The Russian (Cyrillic) Alphabet
Listen to the Alphabet as you
read it
| А а | a as in father |
Р р | r as in error |
| Б б | b as in but | С с | s as in smile |
| В в | v as in van | Т т | t as in ten |
| Г г | g as in get | У у | u as in cool |
| Д д | d as in dress | Ф ф | f as in farm |
| Е е | ye as in yesterday | Х х | h as in loch |
| Ё ё | yo as in yonder | Ц ц | ts as in its |
| Ж ж | zh as in measure | Ч ч | ch as in chess |
| З з | z as in zoo | Ш ш | sh as in fish |
| И и | ee as in meet | Щ щ | shsh as in fresh chicken |
| Й й | y as in toy | Ъ ъ | the "hard sign", has no sound of its own, used to separate a consonant from a following sound, effect is just a brief pause |
| К к | k as in class |
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| Л л | l as in love | Ы ы | i as in bill (with the tongue tip a little bit further back) |
| М м | m as mother | Ь ь | the "soft sign", makes the preceding consonant soft like the first n in "onion" |
| Н н | n as in name | Э э | e as in bet |
| О о | o as in bottle | Ю ю | yu as in Yugoslavia |
| П п | p as in paper | Я я | ya as in yard |
