Although it’s going to appear as intimidating within the starting, the Russian alphabet isn’t the toughest alphabet. Consisting of thirty-three letters which is simply seven more than the Latin alphabet – it uses the Cyrillic script to write down the Russian language. And you recognize what’s the eye-catching thing here? Almost all the words in Russian will be pronounced in a  manner they’re written, unlike English where the pronunciation of a word may not be clear from its written form. Also, the Russian language also has one letter to one sound, unlike English where two letters often make one sound. (Example “ch”). It means that once you learn the Russian alphabet, you will know how to pronounce most of the Russian words.  Let’s discover more about the Russian alphabet and how to learn with Multibhashi.

There is another name for the Russian alphabet which is the Cyrillic alphabet. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet which includes 11 vowels, 20 consonants, and 2 pronunciation signs. Here is what the Russian alphabet looks like (in the order of dictionaries).

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

The Russian alphabet is derived from Cyrillic script. The Cyrillic script is the national script in many places like Slavic, Turkic, and Iranian-speaking countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Northern Asia.

How to learn the Russian Alphabet?

If we had to compare the Russian alphabet with the English alphabet, we would have got four groups of letters: 

Letters that look and sound (almost) an equivalent as in English, 

Letters that sound similar but look different, 

Letters that look similar but sound different and 

Letters that have no English equivalent whatsoever.

Let’s understand them…

Letters that look and sound (almost) an equivalent as in English:

These letters are easy to learn and acquire because both writing and pronunciation remind of the Latin alphabet.

А а – Pronounced like the “a” in the word “after” or “car”. 

К к – Pronounced like the “k” in “kit” or “kangaroo”. 

М м – Pronounced like the “m” in “mother”. 

O o – When stressed, it is pronounced like the “o” in “tore”.

Т т – Pronounced like the “t” in “task”. 

Letters that sound similar but look different:

Б б – Pronounced like the “b” in “bat”. (Equivalent to the English letter “b”).

Г г – Pronounced like the “g” in “go”. (Equivalent to the English letter “g”).

Д д – Pronounced like the “d” in “dog”. (Equivalent to the English letter “d”).

З з – Pronounced like the “z” in “zoo”. (Equivalent to the English letter “z”).

И и – Pronounced like the “i” in “taxi”. (Sometimes equivalent to the English letter “i”, the short ‘ee’ sound.). 

Л л – Pronounced like the “l” in “love”. (Equivalent to the English letter “l”).

П п – Pronounced like the “p” in “pot”. (Equivalent to the English letter “p”).

Ф ф – Pronounced like the “f” in “flat”. (Equivalent to the English letter “f”).

Э э – Pronounced like the “e” in “fed”.

Letters that look similar to English but sound different:

В в – Pronounced like the “v” in “vet”. (Equivalent to the English letter “v”).

Е е – Pronounced like the “ye” in “yes”.

Н н – Pronounced like the “n” in “no”. (Equivalent to the English letter “n”).

Р р – Pronounced like the “r” in “run”, but it is rolled. (Equivalent to the English letter “r”).

С с – Pronounced like the “s” in “see”. (Equivalent to the English letter “s”). 

У у – Pronounced like the “oo” in “shoot” or “root”.

Х х – Pronounced like the “h” in “hello”. 

Letters that have no English equivalent whatsoever.

Ь – this is called the “soft sign” which is used to modify the pronunciation of the preceding consonant by making it soft (making it palatalized),

Ъ – this is called the “hard sign” and it prevents palatalization of the preceding consonant.

Yes, this all seems a bit daunting, but need not worry,  but you’ll eventually get the hang of it.

It may get a bit tricky to master Russian pronunciation if you don’t actively live in Russia or not surrounded by the Russian-speaking community. To learn more about Russian alphabets and other aspects, connect with the team of Multibhashi which attempts to facilitate your online learning experience in an innovative manner.