Russian Alphabet

Listen to the Russian letters and example words by clicking the picture.

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A a

- (orange)

a as in father

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Б б

- (bank)

b as in but

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В в

- (doctor)

v as in voice

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Г г

- (newspaper)

g as in god

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Д д

- (house)

d as in do

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Е е

- (food)

ye as in yes

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Ё ё

- (hedgehog)

yo as in yogurt

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Ж ж

- (woman)

s as in measure

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З з

- (umbrella)

z as in zoo

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И и

- (toy)

i as in did

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Й й

- (yogurt)

y as in play

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К к

- (cat)

c as in cat

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Л л

- (forest)

l as in love

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М м

- (Moscow)

m as in mother

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Н н

- (week)

n as in nose

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О о

- (window)

o as in boy

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П п

- (present)

p as in pay

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Р р

- (fish)

r as in rose

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С с

- (dog)

s as in son

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Т т

- (telephone)

t as in but

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У у

- (street)

u as in push

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Ф ф

- (movie)

f as in film

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Х х

- (bread)

h as in high

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Ц ц

- (color)

t´s as in let´s

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Ч ч

- (clock)

ch as in chair

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Ш ш

- (school)

sh as in shall

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Щ щ

- (cabbage soup)

sh ch as in Welsh church

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Ъ ъ

- (advertisement)

no independent sound

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Ы ы

- (cheese)

between i as in lit and u as in sugar

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Ь ь

- (mouse)

no independent sound

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Э э

- (energy)

e as in edit

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Ю ю

- (skirt)

u as in usual

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Я я

- (apple)

ya as in yacht

The letters above are presented in alphabetical order. There are 31 sounds:

  • 21 consonants: б, в, г, д, ж, з, й. к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ and
  • 10 vowels: а, е, ё, и, о, у, ы, э, ю, я.
  • The consonant й (short i) is sometimes called a semivowel.

The soft sign ь and hard sign ъ do not have a sound of their own. Ъ is relatively rare and occurs only in a limited number of words that start with a prefix ending in a consonant. There it is placed between the prefix and the word stem, as in объявление (announcement) and съезд (conference).

Ь is placed after consonants for softening them. Listen to a few examples:

Regardless of the different alphabet, the Russian sounds are very similar to English and are therefore easy to learn.