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The Russian alphabet is called Cyrillic (кириллица), and it is the writing system used by over 250 million people across Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and several Central Asian nations. Learning Cyrillic is the single most important first step to reading Russian — and the good news is that it can be learned in a matter of days.
The Cyrillic script traces its origins to the 9th century, when two Byzantine Greek missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, were sent to the Slavic peoples to spread Christianity. They needed a writing system to translate religious texts into the Slavic languages.
"The Cyrillic script is one of the great cultural achievements of European civilisation, bridging East and West for over a millennium."
The modern Russian alphabet has 33 letters:
| Category | Count | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| Vowels | 10 | А Е Ё И О У Ы Э Ю Я |
| Consonants | 21 | Б В Г Д Ж З Й К Л М Н П Р С Т Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ |
| Signs (no sound) | 2 | Ъ (hard sign) Ь (soft sign) |
Every letter has an uppercase and lowercase form. Some lowercase forms look quite different from their uppercase counterparts (e.g., Б/б, Д/д).
As an English speaker, you can divide the 33 Russian letters into three intuitive groups:
These letters look like Latin letters and sound roughly the same:
| Russian | Sound | English Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| А а | "ah" | A |
| Е е | "ye" | (like "yet") |
| К к | "k" | K |
| М м | "m" | M |
| О о | "o" | O |
| Т т | "t" | T |
These are the trickiest letters. They look like Latin letters but make completely different sounds:
| Russian | Looks Like | Actual Sound |
|---|---|---|
| В в | B | "v" (as in "very") |
| Н н | H | "n" (as in "no") |
| Р р | P | "r" (rolled) |
| С с | C | "s" (as in "sun") |
| У у | Y | "oo" (as in "boot") |
| Х х | X | "kh" (as in Scottish "loch") |
These letters have no Latin lookalike and must be learned fresh:
| Russian | Sound | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Б б | "b" | Like English B |
| Г г | "g" | Like English G |
| Д д | "d" | Like English D |
| Ж ж | "zh" | Like the "s" in "pleasure" |
| З з | "z" | Like English Z |
| И и | "ee" | Like "ee" in "meet" |
| Л л | "l" | Like English L |
| П п | "p" | Like English P |
| Ф ф | "f" | Like English F |
| Ц ц | "ts" | Like "ts" in "cats" |
| Ч ч | "ch" | Like "ch" in "church" |
| Ш ш | "sh" | Like "sh" in "ship" |
| Щ щ | "shch" | Like "sh" + "ch" together |
| Ы ы | "i" | A unique guttural "i" sound |
| Э э | "e" | Like "e" in "met" |
| Ю ю | "yu" | Like "you" |
| Я я | "ya" | Like "ya" in "yard" |
Because Cyrillic was developed from the Greek alphabet, many letters are directly inherited:
| Greek | Cyrillic | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| Α α (Alpha) | А а | "a" |
| Β β (Beta) | В в | "v" (shifted from "b" to "v") |
| Γ γ (Gamma) | Г г | "g" |
| Δ δ (Delta) | Д д | "d" |
| Π π (Pi) | П п | "p" |
| Φ φ (Phi) | Ф ф | "f" |
This means if you know any Greek letters (from maths or science), you already have a head start!
Russian text is read left to right, top to bottom — exactly like English. Words are separated by spaces and sentences end with full stops (periods), question marks, or exclamation marks.
Example sentence:
Москва — столица России.
Moskva — stolitsa Rossii.
"Moscow is the capital of Russia."
The Russian Cyrillic alphabet has 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 signs. It was developed in the 9th century from the Greek alphabet by students of Saints Cyril and Methodius. For English speakers, the letters fall into three groups: true friends (look and sound familiar), false friends (look familiar but sound different), and new letters (unique to Cyrillic). In the next lesson, we will master the first group — the familiar letters.