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WordDive adapts to your learning and concentrates on words you have not yet learned, so you do not need to repeat words you already know.

Russian language

Russian is an Indo-European language that is closely related to the other major European languages. It is written with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Russian is the native language of 175 million people and spoken as a second language by 130 million, over 300 million speakers in total. Differences between dialects are small, and Russian speakers around the world understand each other easily.

Russian you already know

If you do not let the alphabet get in the way, you will find that a significant part of the Russian vocabulary is shared with other European languages. Words with common roots include these:

• автобус (avtobus) – autobus (bus)
• метро (metro) – metro
• фотография (fotografia) – photography
• директор (direktor) – director
• процесс (protsess) - process

There are also many loanwords:
From English:

• студент (student) – student
• футбол (futbol) – football

From German:

• галстук (galstuk) – Halstuch (scarf)
• рюкзак (rjukzak) - Rucksack

From French:

• браслет (braslet) – bracelet
• режиссёр (rezhissjor) – régisseur (theater or film director)

From Spanish:

• томат (tomat) – tomate
• табак (tabak) – tabaco

Alphabet

The Russian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters.

• 6 letters are similar to English:
  A, E, K, M, O, T
• 6 letters look similar but have different sounds: В, Н, Р, С, У, Х
• 18 letters look different but have familiar sounds: Б, Г, Д, Ё, Ж, З, П, Ф, И, Й, Л, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Э, Ю and Я
• 1 letter has no English equivalent: Ы
• 2 letters are without sound: soft sign ь and hard sign ъ

Pronunciation of the Russian alphabet

Typing and keyboard

Both Windows and Apple computers support the Russian language, but the keyboard differs from English, and even common letters are in different places.

The WordDive course 100 Russian words has been designed with this in mind. You will start with common letters in the middle of the keyboard and automatically proceed toward the edges as you learn.