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Listen to the Russian alphabet:

	Upright	Cursive	Name of the letter	Similar sound in English
1	Аа	Аа	a	sun
2	Бб	Бб	be	book
3	Вв	Вв	ve	love
4	Гг	Гг	ge	go
5	Дд	Дд	de	do
6	Ее	Ее	ye	yellow
7	Ёё	Ёё	yo	turn
8	Жж	Жж	zhe	usual
9	Зз	Зз	ze	zoo
10	Ии	Ии	i	dinner
11	Йй	Йй	i kratkoe	young
12	Кк	Кк	ka	car
13	Лл	Лл	el	look
14	Мм	Мм	em	make
15	Нн	Нн	en	name
16	Оо	Оо	o	walk
17	Пп	Пп	pe	put
18	Рр	Рр	er	road
19	Сс	Сс	es	since
20	Тт	Тт	te	take
21	Уу	Уу	u	do
22	Фф	Фф	ef	for
23	Хх	Хх	kha	hear
24	Цц	Цц	tse	tsar
25	Чч	Чч	che	catch
26	Шш	Шш	sha	shop
27	Щщ	Щщ	shcha	Danish
28	ъ	ъ	tverdiy znak	no sound
29	Ыы	Ыы	y	kick
30	ь	ь	myagkiy znak	no sound
31	Ээ	Ээ	e	arrive
32	Юю	Юю	yu	unit
33	Яя	Яя	ya	yaht

Letters of Russian alphabet can reproduce different sounds. Sounds are divided into vowels and consonants.

The vowels are as follows: а, и, о, у, ы, э.

The letters e, ё, ю, я are pronounced as two sounds (read Reading rules).

The consonants are as follows: б, в, г, д, ж, з, й, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ.

There are hard and soft consonants.

hard: б в г д з к л м н п р с т ф х
soft: б’ в’ г’ д’ з’ к’ л’ м’ н’ п’ р’ с’ т’ ф’ х’

In front of the letters а, о, у, э, ы, ъ consonants are always hard.

In front of the letters и, е, ё, ю, я, ь consonants are always soft.

Keep in mind that the consonants ж, ш, ц are always hard, and the consonants ч, щ, й

are always soft.

Consonants can be voiced and voiceless.

б, в, г, д, ж, з are voiced,

п, ф, к, т, ш, с are voiceless.

The consonants л, м, н, р, й are always voiced, x, ц, ч, щ are always voiceless.

 

Last update: June 21, 2007