GrammatikAlphabet

Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. It has 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 signs that have no sound of their own. Some letters look and sound just like their Latin counterparts, some look familiar but sound completely different, and some are brand new. The good news: Russian spelling is far more consistent than English - once you know the letters, you can read almost any word.

The 33 letters

Here is the full alphabet in dictionary order, with each letter’s name and an approximate English sound.

Vowels, consonants and signs

The 10 vowels

а, е, ё, и, о, у, ы, э, ю, я. They split into two groups that mirror each other — see the vowel pairs below.

The 21 consonants

б, в, г, д, ж, з, й, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ. A few spell a whole English cluster with one letter: ж = “zh”, ц = “ts”, ч = “ch”, ш = “sh”, щ = “shch”, х = “kh”.

The 2 signs

These letters are never pronounced on their own — they only change how the letters around them sound:

• ь — the soft sign (мя́гкий знак) softens the consonant before it: мать (mother), день (day).
• ъ — the hard sign (твёрдый знак) is rare; it keeps a consonant hard before a soft vowel: объе́кт (object), съесть (to eat up).

False friends — letters that fool you

Several Cyrillic letters look exactly like Latin ones but sound different. These trip up every beginner, so learn them first:

Others simply look unfamiliar and take a little memorising: Б = “b”, Г = “g”, Д = “d”, Ж = “zh”, З = “z”, Л = “l”, П = “p”, Ф = “f”, Э = “e”, Ю = “yu”, Я = “ya”.

The vowel pairs — hard vs soft

The 10 vowels come in five matching pairs. Each pair points to the same basic vowel sound, but the “soft” one either adds a /y/ glide at the start of a word or after another vowel, or signals that the consonant before it is soft (palatalised).

Compare мат (hard “a”) with мять (soft — the “m” is palatalised), or лук (onion) with люк (hatch). At the start of a word the soft vowel adds a “y”: я (“ya”, = I), ёж (“yozh”, = hedgehog).

A note on ё

In ordinary text (newspapers, books, websites) the two dots on ё are usually dropped, so it is printed as plain е. Learners’ materials and dictionaries keep the dots. Two things are always true about ё:

• It is always stressed — so it never carries a written stress mark.
• It changes the word: все (everyone) vs всё (everything).

Common mistakes

• Reading Cyrillic as Latin. С is not “c”, it’s “s”; Н is not “h”, it’s “n”; Р is not “p”, it’s “r”.
• Pronouncing the signs. ь and ъ have no sound — never say them out loud.
• Confusing и and й. и is the vowel “ee”; й is the consonant “y” (и кра́ткое, “short и”).
• Mixing up ш and щ. ш is a plain “sh”; щ is a longer, softer “shch”.

Summary

• 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants, 2 signs (ь soft, ъ hard) with no sound of their own.
• Beware false friends: В=v, Е=ye, Н=n, Р=r, С=s, У=oo, Х=kh.
• Vowels pair up hard/soft: а/я, о/ё, у/ю, э/е, ы/и — the soft one softens the consonant or adds a “y”.
• ё is often printed as е, but it is always stressed.
• Russian spelling is regular — learn the 33 letters and you can read almost anything.