The Russian Cyrillic alphabet is the writing system used to read and write Russian, and learning it is the first step toward sounding out words like Привет. It has 33 letters, including vowels, consonants, and two special signs that change pronunciation. Some letters look familiar to English speakers, but several have different sounds, so careful practice prevents bad habits.
Knowing the alphabet makes menus, maps, names, songs, and simple messages much easier to recognize.
Key Facts
- Russian alphabet total: 33 letters = 10 vowels + 21 consonants + 2 signs.
- Привет is pronounced roughly pri-VYET and means hello.
- Some Cyrillic letters look and sound like Latin letters, such as А = a, К = k, М = m, О = o, Т = t.
- Some familiar-looking letters are false friends: В = v, Н = n, Р = r, С = s, У = u, Х = kh.
- The hard sign ъ and soft sign ь do not make their own sound, but they affect how nearby consonants are pronounced.
- Russian is mostly phonetic, so reading improves when you match each letter to its sound instead of guessing from English spelling.
Vocabulary
- Cyrillic alphabet
- The writing system used for Russian and several other Slavic and non-Slavic languages.
- Letter name
- The spoken name of a letter, which may differ from the sound it usually makes in a word.
- False friend
- A letter that looks like a familiar Latin letter but represents a different sound.
- Soft sign
- The letter ь, which has no sound of its own but softens the consonant before it.
- Stress
- The emphasis placed on one syllable of a word, which can affect vowel pronunciation in Russian.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Reading Р as English P is wrong because Russian Р sounds like r, usually with a tap or trill.
- Reading В as English B is wrong because Russian В sounds like v, as in the word ветер.
- Ignoring the soft sign ь is wrong because it can change the sound of the consonant before it and sometimes changes meaning.
- Assuming every vowel sounds the same in every position is wrong because unstressed Russian vowels can be reduced, especially о sounding closer to a.
Practice Questions
- 1 Count the letters in Привет. Then write the approximate sound of each letter in order.
- 2 From this list, circle the false friends and write their Russian sounds: А, В, Е, К, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, Х. How many false friends did you find?
- 3 A beginner sees the Russian word РОСТ and reads it like the English word post. Explain which letters caused the mistake and how the word should be sounded out more accurately.