The Cyrillic alphabet
Reading Cyrillic, letter by letter.
Thirty-three letters, learnt in groups: the ones you already know, the false friends, then the new ones. Each comes with its sound and a word to anchor it.
Ж
jжурна́л
The alphabet
Thirty-three letters, four groups
Choose a group, then a letter. Listen to it in a common word.
Sound
Reading rules
Russian is not always read as it is written. Five rules cover the essentials.
вода́
Unstressed o sounds like a
вода́ is pronounced va-DA: only the stressed syllable keeps its o.
хлеб
Final consonants lose their voice
At the end of a word, б is pronounced p: хлеб sounds like “khlep”.
соль
The soft sign
ь is not pronounced: it softens the consonant before it.
я ю е ё
The soft vowels
They start with a y sound: ya, yu, ye, yo.
кни́га
Word stress
It is not written and can fall on any syllable: you learn it with each word.
Reading