A Child Chosen - Perspectives of an Adoptive Parent

The Russian Alphabet: Its all Greek to Me!

by Marcie on February 26th, 2008

Learning Russian can be quite difficult, especially if you don’t know that the modern Russian alphabet is variant of the alphabet.

The layout of the early language is based on the ninth century Glagolitic alphabet that is influence by Greek and Hebrew and has adapted over the years of spoken language.

Russian letters that are (almost) the same.

А а - Pronounced like the “a” in the word “father” or “car”. It is not the ‘flat’ “a” sound you sometimes hear in words like”cat” or “Adam”.

К к - Pronounced like the “k” in “kitten” or “kangaroo”. This letter replaces the english “c” in words like “cat”.

М м - Pronounced like the “m” in man. (Note: Unlike english, the hand-written “м” should always start from the bottom)

O o - When stressed, it is pronounced like the “o” in “spot”. When un-stressed it is pronounced more like the letter “a”. (See later notes.)

Т т - Pronounced like the “t” in “tap”. (Note: The hand-written form for “т” should always start from the top, as it looks quite similar to the letter “м“)

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 - Pronounced like the “v” in “vet”. (Equivalent to the english letter “v”).

Е е - Pronounced like the “ye” in “yes”.

Н н - Pronounced like the “n” in “no”. (Equivalent to the english letter “n”).

Р р - Pronounced like the “r” in “run”, but it is rolled. (Equivalent to the english letter “r”, but always rolled.).

С с - Pronounced like the “s” in “see”. (Equivalent to the english letter “s”). (It might help to remember that it’s used like the “s” sound in the english words “centre” and “cent”.)

У у - Pronounced like the “oo” in “boot” or “root”.

Х х - Pronounced like the “h” in “hello”. However, this is often pronounced more like the “ch” in the Scottish “Loch” or German “Bach”, or the spanish “x” in “Mexico”.

Russian letters that look unusual, but have familiar sounds

Б б - Pronounced like the “b” in “bat”. (Equivalent to the english letter “b”).

Г г - Pronounced like the “g” in “go”. (Equivalent to the english letter “g”).

Д д - Pronounced like the “d” in “dog”. (Equivalent to the english letter “d”).

З з - Pronounced like the “z” in “zoo”. (Equivalent to the english letter “z”).

И и - Pronounced like the “ee” in “see”. (Note: The hand-written form for “и” looks a little like the english “u”).

Л л - Pronounced like the “l” in “love”. (Equivalent to the english letter “l”).

П п - Pronounced like the “p” in “pot”. (Equivalent to the english letter “p”).

Ф ф - Pronounced like the “f” in “fat”. (Equivalent to the english letter “f”).

Э э - Pronounced like the “e” in “fed”.

New Russian letters and sounds

(The sounds will be familiar, but they don’t have their own letter).Ю ю - Pronounced like the “u” in “universe”. (Pronounced much like the english word “you”).

Я я - Pronounced like the “ya” in “yard”.

Ё ё - Pronounced like “yo” in “yonder”.

Ж ж - Like “s” in “measure”, “pleasure” or “fusion” or like “g” in colour “beige”. (As there is no english symbol for this sound, it is usually represented as “zh”)

Ц ц - Similar to the “ts” sound in “sits” or “its”.

Ч ч - Pronounced like the “ch” in “chips” or “church” .

Ш ш - Pronounced like the “sh” in shut.

Щ щ - Pronounced like “sh” but with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Try putting your tongue in the same position as you would to say “ch” but say “sh” instead. English speakers may find it hard to define the difference between “ш” and “щ”.

Ы ы - Pronounced like the “i” in “bit” or “ill”. (Said with your tounge slightly back in your mouth.)

Й й - This letter is used to form diphthongs. So “oй” is like the “oy” sound in “boy” or “aй” is like the “igh” in “sigh”.

Pronunciation Symbols

(These letters have no sound on there own, but are still considered letters.).Ъ ъ - The ‘Hard Sign’ is rarely used. It indicates a slight pause between sylables.

Ь ь - The ‘Soft Sign’ makes the previous letter ’soft’. Think of the “p” sound in the word “pew”. (Try inflecting a very slight “y” sound onto letter before it.)

A note about vowels

You may have noticed that there are often two forms of a vowel, hard and soft. It may help to note the corresponding vowels.

Ы, И and Й don’t really follow this pattern.

The “y” sound is always pronounced. It may take some time to get used to pronouncing it with consonants. Try the following:

НЕТ (No) - Pronounced “nyet”. This is one syllable.
МЕТРО (Metro, underground railway) - Pronounced “mye-tro”.

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POSTED IN: Countries and Domestic, Kazakhstan, Russia