Russian is an East Slavic language and one of the world’s major languages: it is one of the six official United Nations languages and the 8th most spoken language in the world with a total of 260 million speakers. Moreover, Russian the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and the unofficial lingua franca in Ukraine and many other former Soviet countries. Russian has been greatly influenced by Old Church Slavonic and – since the westernizing policies of Tsar Peter I the Great in the 18 century – by the languages of western Europe. Then, the 19th-century poet Aleksandr Pushkin determined the further development of the Russian language we know today. His writings, in which he combined the colloquial and Church Slavonic styles, were decisive in establishing the best style for literary use.

The first step to learning Russian pronunciation is understanding the Cyrillic alphabet and how each letter sounds. It may look alien to you now, but it won’t for long! The Cyrillic alphabet only has 33 characters. And many of these are very similar to Latin letters in how they look, sound, or both. The Cyrillic script is the national script in various Slavic-, Turkic- and Iranic-speaking countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Northern Asia. It is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented with letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet, and was named in honor of the two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Glagolitic alphabet.

There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 pronunciation signs. In Russian, as in many other languages, some letters change their pronunciation depending on their position in words and the letters that surround them.

1. Pronunciation of Vowels – Russians tend to be lazy when it comes to pronunciation, so the Russian letter O, when unstressed, usually sounds close to A. The same “lazy pronunciation” happens to the letters Я, Е, and Э. When unstressed and not in the beginning or the end of the word, the Russian letters Я, Е, and Э tend to be pronounced close to the Russian sound И. The letter Ё is always stressed in Russian words.
2. Pronunciation of Consonants – Russian voiced consonants are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts when they appear at the very end of the word. Voiced consonants become voiceless when they are followed by other voiceless consonants. Voiceless consonants sound as their voiced counterparts when they are followed by the consonants Б, Г, Д, Ж, З.

Always keep in mind the following rule about stressing the letters:

• Stress, or accents, affects how you pronounce vowels in a word. The reduction of vowels happens when they are not part of the stressed syllable in the word. This means they are pronounced less distinctly than the others, and how they sound changes. The difference in pronunciation depending on stress in Russian is comparable to “short vowels” and “long vowels” in English. The first ‘a’ in “cascade”, for example, sounds different from the second.
• When a vowel is stressed within a word, it becomes the emphasized sound. As you say it, your vocal energy goes into that vowel. And often your mouth moves to make the sound in full. Most stressed vowels require you to change the shape of your mouth as you say them.

Now, we have fully covered the Russian alphabet and pronunciation rules. It will take you some time to master your reading skills and pronunciation in Russian. Soon you will also encounter some words that don’t exactly follow the rules you’ve been learning so far – there are many exceptions in the Russian language, but don’t let this fact confuse or discourage you.