Learn the bricks. Build your sentences.
Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words and the rules that put them together. You build, transform and listen to sentences you have never seen before.
Six families of bricks
Every word is shown in Cyrillic with its stress mark, a transliteration, its audio and a meaning in context.
Subject pronouns. They are almost always expressed.
Common verbs, conjugated according to the person.
Their ending changes with their role in the sentence: these are the cases.
Negation, yes, no, and question words.
The rules for putting bricks together, cases included. Nothing is glued word for word.
33 letters, many of them already familiar. Stress is taught with every word.
The same bricks, everywhere
At a restaurant, on the move or meeting someone new, a few bricks are enough to make yourself understood.
Where is Russian spoken?
Russian is an East Slavic language whose standard form took shape around the speech of Moscow. The expansion of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union spread it from Eastern Europe to the Pacific and into Central Asia, where it remains an official language in several countries.
- Russia — Moscow: the standard language formed around its speech
- Belarus — official language, alongside Belarusian
- Kazakhstan — officially used on an equal footing with Kazakh
- Kyrgyzstan — official language, alongside Kyrgyz
- Estonia — large Russian-speaking minority
- Latvia — large Russian-speaking minority
- Germany
- Israel — immigration from the former USSR
- United States — New York (Brighton Beach)
Homeland or official language Community · Approximate positions. Natural Earth.
The sentence builder
Every combination is checked against the grammar. Bricks marked ≠ don’t go with your choice: pick them to find out why.
Fifteen minutes a day
Adjustable from 5 to 30 minutes. Missing a day costs you nothing: your progress waits for you.
Eight weeks of discovery
A path, not a promise of a level. Each week targets a skill you can see for yourself.
Cyrillic in a few days.
Some letters are already familiar, others are false friends, a few are new. Learn them in groups, with their sound.
Learn the alphabetLearning Russian with KilaTalk
What is KilaTalk, and what does learning “by construction” mean?
KilaTalk is a language-learning app. Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words — people, actions, things, places — and the rules that put them together, then you build, transform and listen to your own sentences.
Do I need an account? Is it free?
The sentence builder and the method, pronunciation and reading pages are open to everyone, with no account. The eight-week course, reviews and your word list require an account, which is free to create.
How much time does it take each day, and what is in the eight-week course?
A session lasts fifteen minutes, adjustable from 5 to 30: the day’s reviews, new bricks, sentences to build and a listening task. The eight weeks go from the first sounds to real-life dialogues, through negation, questions, numbers and polite requests; it is a discovery path, not a promise of a level.
How is pronunciation taught?
Every word and sentence has audio you can play at normal speed or slowly (0.5×, without distorting the voice). Words come with a transcription suited to the language: pinyin for Mandarin, Yale romanisation for Cantonese, rōmaji for Japanese, Revised Romanization for Korean, the International Phonetic Alphabet for Vietnamese and most European languages, and a transliteration for Russian.
Which languages can I learn from?
The interface is available in six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and French. Explanations and translations are written for each of them, with comparisons drawn from the learner’s own language.
Who is behind KilaTalk, and can I trust the sentences?
KilaTalk is designed and published by SDiTech, a software publisher based in France. Every sentence in the builder is checked by a grammar engine: a combination that doesn’t work is refused, with the rule explained and correct alternatives offered.
Lay your first brick.
Choose your goal and your pace, and the first lesson starts straight away.