Learn Russian Alphabet! Cyrillic Alphabet for beginners

Ready to start learning Russian? To most beginners, Russian alphabet seems scary. Even though Cyrillic alphabet is somehow similar to Latin alphabet (unlike Chinese, Japanese, Greek, etc) some letters are the mirror image of familiar ones, and some letters are the same but pronounced differently.

To make this process fun, we’ve created a video to help you memorise Russian letters while watching our student Francesco pack for a trip to Russia: some things essential, some things useful, some things… not. Have a look!

Russian Character	English Equivalent
А а	А
Б б	B
В в	V
Г г	G
Д д	D
Е е	Ye
Ё ё	Yo
Ж ж	Zh
З з	Z
И и	Ee
Й й	I or y
К к	K
Л л	L
М м	M
Н н	N
О о	Stressed: O Unstressed: A
П п	P
Р р	R
С с	S
Т т	T
У у	U
Ф ф	F
Х х	H, kh
Ц ц	Ts
Ч ч	Ch
Ш ш	Sh
Щ щ	Shch
Ъ ъ	Hard Sign
Ы ы	I i
Ь ь	Soft Sign
Э э	E e
Ю ю	Yu
Я я	Ya

Now that you’ve watched the video, let’s break the letters of Russian alphabet down into a few groups.

1. Familiar friends

You probably noticed some letters are very similar to Latin alphabet:

А а     К к     М м     O о     Т т

So you can already read these words:

Ма́ма

Кот

Ко́ма

Мак

2. The tricky group

Russian letters that look like English letters but sound different. These are the most important to learn so you don’t get them mixed up.)

В в     Е е     Н н     Р р     С с     У у      Х х

For instance,  can you read the words below?

Рестора́н

Се́вер

у́ксус

Храм

3. Just memorise

Letters of Russian alphabet that look unusual, but have familiar sounds

Бб     Г г     Д д     З з     И и     Л л      П п     Ф ф     Э э

Try reading these words:

Вы́ход

Вход

Дом

4. New Russian letters and sounds

The sounds of these letters of Russian alphabet will be familiar, but they don’t have their own letter in English.

Ю ю     Я я     Ё ё     Ж ж     Ц ц     Ч ч     Ш ш     Щ щ     Ы ы     Й й

Here are some examples of words containing these letters:

Цена́

Что

Ша́пка

Лы́жи

Юг

5. Pronunciation Symbols

These Russian letters have no sound on their own and serve to alter the sound of letters next to them.

Ъ ъ – The ‘Hard Sign’ is indicates a slight pause between syllables.

Ь ь – The ‘Soft Sign’ makes the previous letter ‘soft’.

In conclusion, remember: practice makes perfect! We hope this helps you figure out the letters of the Russian alphabet. For more tips on learning it check out this article, and stay tuned in our blog for more tips & tricks on learning Russian!