Are you ready to begin your Russian language journey? Let's jump right in!
Resources for further reading:
The Russian alphabet uses the Cyrillic writing system, named after the Greek missionary St. Cyril and his brother St. Methodius, the creators of the first Slavonic alphabet. Some letters in this system are derived from the Latin alphabet, while others come from the Greek alphabet. Apart from Russian, the Cyrillic alphabet is also used in some other Slavonic languages, such as Serbian, Bulgarian and others.
Once you have mastered the letters and their corresponding sounds, it will be easy for you to read Russian as the letters don’t usually change in format or pronunciation. In this sense the Russian language is much easier to follow than the English language!
Now on to the letters: there are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet two of which are silent. Let’s start with the letters that are similar to their English equivalents:
Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record
Now for the last two letters that are always silent:
Ь – the soft sign
The soft sign changes the sound of the preceding consonant, making it sound softer.
Ъ – the hard sign
The hard sign, as the name suggests, does exactly the opposite, it separates two letters and prevents certain vowels from making preceding consonants soft. You will not see this letter very often.
Check out the quick cheat sheet below for the whole alphabet:
| Standard | Pronounced as in English |
|---|---|
| А a | car |
| Б б | book |
| В в | verge |
| Г г | go |
| Д д | dog |
| Е е | Yell |
| Ё ё | your |
| Ж ж | measure |
| З з | Zoo |
| И и | street |
| Й й | boy |
| К к | take |
| Л л | long |
| М м | much |
| Н н | none |
| О о | for |
| П п | pork |
| Р р | rise |
| С с | set |
| Т т | tin |
| У у | spoon |
| Ф ф | fish |
| Х х | his |
| Ц ц | rats |
| Ч ч | bench |
| Ш ш | ship |
| Щ щ | dish chips |
| Ъ ъ | hard sign |
| Ы ы | pig |
| Ь ь | soft sign |
| Э э | get |
| Ю ю | you |
| Я я | yarn |
Now that you are familiar with the Russian alphabet, it won't be a problem for you to write or read (just make sure you invest some time into checking the next few lessons on pronunciation rules). However, there is one more thing to learn if you truly want to master Russian writing, handwriting.
Nowadays, as people widely use smartphones, tablets or computers for written communication, many students of foreign languages choose not to pay much attention to handwriting. But unlike in English, where handwritten letters look very similar to printed letters, Russian handwriting is very different from typed fonts.
Some handwritten letters are completely different from their typed counterparts. Furthermore, handwritten messages are still commonly used in Russia between friends, relatives or colleagues who wish to exchanging notes, cards, etc.
If you would like to find out more about the differences between the handwritten and typed alphabets and wish to practice your Russian handwriting, check out the sample "Writing Lessons" in the Rocket Russian free trial.
Action replay
- Russian has two silent letters; one of them (the soft sign - Ь) softens the pronunciation of the preceding consonant; the other (the hard sign - Ъ) prevents certain vowels from making the letter preceding them soft.
- Some Russian consonants look similar to English and are pronounced similarly as well.
- Some Russian consonants are "false friends" so be especially careful with them.
- Russian handwriting looks a little bit different from the typed alphabet used in this lesson, so check the "Writing Lessons" section in the free trial of Rocket Russian to find out more about it.
Culture: Money and Purchases
The national currency of Russia is the ruble. There are various ways you can exchange foreign currency into rubles. The most popular options are at an exchange point or at a bank; however банкомат (bankamat) "cash machine" or "ATM" might be also an option. The most reliable way of getting cash is at a bank using your credit or debit card or traveler’s checks, and producing your passport as ID.
US dollars and euros are the most common foreign currencies to exchange. However, in some large major branches of Sberbank you can also exchange British pounds or Swiss francs and some other currencies. Sberbank has the best exchange rates and you can always exchange money at their branches or ATM in the airports. Just make sure your banknotes are clean and not torn otherwise you might not be able to exchange them.
It is worth checking if there is any комиссия (kamissiya) "commission" for currency exchanges, because in some cases higher rates may be charged. Also check the difference between покупка (pakupka) "purchase" and продажа (pradazha) "sale" price.
In Russia you will be able to use your credit or debit cards in larger shops and supermarkets, however you should check out the fees for that with your bank. The use of credit / debit cards is not widespread in Russia at the moment, although authorities are introducing new rules and customers are being encouraged to pay by credit / debit cards rather than cash.