The Russian Alphabet, known as Cyrillic or Кири́ллица (Ki-reel-lee-tsa) has 33 letters; 21 consonants, 10 vowels and two signs. The letters are: 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 and Я. In order to make this explanation easier, the letters are broken down into specific groups. While many who are unfamiliar with the alphabet dismiss it as being too hard, the alphabet is deceptively simple, as the phonetic principle is very prominent, and successive reforms have removed excess letters and greatly simplified the spelling system.
| Consonants | ||
| Б б В в Г г Д д Ж ж З з Й й К к Л л М м Н н П п Р р С с Т т Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ |
Бэ — Beh Вэ — Veh Гэ — Geh Дэ — Deh Жэ — Zheh Зэ– Zeh И краткое– i kratkoye Ка– Kah Эл– El Эм– Em Эн — En Пэ– Peh Эрр — Err Эс — Es Тэ — Teh Эф — Ef Ха — Khah Цэ — Tseh Че — Cheh Шэ — Shah Ща — Shchah |
Best Vent Gift Deep Pleasure Zebra York King Lion Mend Next Pet trilled r Sink Tape Find Kh, like German machen Boots Chair Ship See note* |
*I have heard two ways of pronouncing the letter щ, which I will assume to be regional variances. The first is to begin with a ш sound with a ч made just after without pause. (The example “fresh cheese” is most common.) The second is to make a “sh” sound, but push your jaw slightly forward and tighten the corners of your lips into a kind of semi-smile.
In addition to the above consonants, there are certain variations in the sound made for most consonants, referred to most often as “soft” consonants. Rather than add new letters to represent these sounds, the Russian Alphabet shows them in one of two ways: either through a softening vowel, or should there be no vowel, a soft sign, used below. An explanation of how to pronounce these individually are below as well. The signs have additional uses, explained later.
| Soft Consonants |
| Бь -Like Пь, but voiced Вь -Push your lower lip upwards so the inside touches the lower front portion of your front teeth Дь – Use the frontal portion of your tongue rather than just the tip to make a sound similar to “dz” or the d in the French “jeudi.” Жж -This is, in theory, a voiced version of Щ, but is rarely spoken as anything other than ж, and is marked by жж, not жь, for reasons explained later. Зь -Push your lower jaw forward a little, and/or press the first centimeter or so of your tongue just behind your front teeth. Ль -Use the whole front portion of your tongue to make an l sound like that in French or German. Нь -Press the front of your tongue against the top of your mouth, just behind the front teeth; sounds like Spanish ñ. Пь -Like the p in “computer” Рь -Similar to a regular Р, but with more aspiration. Сь -This is a devoiced version of the soft З. Ть -Sounds a bit like ц but with the front of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. The t in the French “tu” makes the same sound. Фь -Like Вь, but devoiced. |
| “Soft” Vowels | ||
| Е е Ё ё И и Ю ю Я я |
Yeh Yoh Ee Yu Yah |
Yes Yodel Feet Youth Yacht |
| “Hard” Vowels | ||
| Э э О о ы У у А а |
Eh Oh Еры* Ooh Ah |
Enter NoteBoot Swan |
(If you know Romanian, ы is the same sound as î, and if you know Polish, it is the same sound as y. A similar vowel is found in the Turkish l, but ы is made further forward in the mouth.)
| Pronunciation With Й | |
| ай ей/эй ой уй |
Wide Bay Boy Hooey |
While most Cyrillic typefaces’ letter forms may look only slightly different than the one used on this page, the letter forms of handwritten Russian are decidedly different, and can be easily comfused to those unfamiliar with them. My own handwriting being as terrible as it is, I would recommend downloading OdessaScript to get an idea of what the letter forms should look like, and Pushkin for a more stylized and “realistic” example. The key to learning the written script is practice; start by mimicking the OdessaScript letters individually, copying them out 20-30 times in a row before moving onto the next one. Then move on to words of 3-5 letters, and finally onto longer words. Copying out poems, newspaper articles and other short texts can be the final step, and aid greatly in keeping your skills up to par.