Russian is spoken by more than 250 million people, and it is widely understood in Uzbekistan and many other countries. It is written from left to right, like English, with the Cyrillic alphabet of 33 letters. Ten letters are vowels, 21 are consonants, and two are signs that have no sound of their own. Every letter has a capital and a small form. In most words one vowel is stressed, said louder and longer; in this course it carries an acute accent, as in алфави́т. Russian spelling is quite regular, so once you know the letters you can read almost any word.
А а
Б б
В в
Г г
Д д
Е е
Ё ё
Ж ж
З з
И и
Й й
К к
Л л
М м
Н н
О о
П п
Р р
С с
Т т
У у
Ф ф
Х х
Ц ц
Ч ч
Ш ш
Щ щ
Ъ ъ
Ы ы
Ь ь
Э э
Ю ю
Я я
Worked examples
Group
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 (2)
Ъ Ь
The 33 letters fall into three groups: vowel letters, consonant letters and two signs.
A name starts with a capital letter and continues with small letters. Press Listen to hear two Russian names.
алal·фаfa·ви́тvít
In a longer word one vowel is the strong one. The word алфави́т is said al-fa-VÍT: the last syllable is the loud one.
Class activity
Cyrillic hunt. Look for Russian writing at home or on a screen: a product label, a sign, a video title. Copy three letters on paper, left to right. Circle the ones that look like English letters, such as А, К, М, О, Т. Do not worry about the sounds yet: you will learn them one by one.
Practice
1
How many letters does the Russian alphabet have, and how many of them are vowels?
33 letters, and 10 of them are vowel letters.
2
In which direction do you read Russian, left to right or right to left?
Left to right, like English.
3
Press Listen. How many syllables do you hear?
Two: кни́-га (kní-ga), “book”.
4
Look at the word. Which vowel is the stressed one?
The first а: ма́-ма. The stress mark sits right after it.
5
Which of the two letters is a vowel letter, О or Т?
