The Russian alphabet unveiled: a guide into Cyrillic alphabets, letters, and sounds

The Russian alphabet is a set of letters, written in Cyrillic script used in all Slavic languages. The Russian alphabet  (ру́сский алфави́т) consists of 33 letters: 20 consonants, 10 vowels, and 1 semivowel “Й”. Once you learn the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, you’ll be able to read in other Slavic languages using Cyrillic scripts, such as Belarusian and Ukrainian.

Table of Contents

1. What other languages use the Cyrillic based alphabets

2. Insights into the history of the Russian alphabet

3. Russian alphabet letters and pronunciation

4. Russian letters in English

5. Best video resources to learn the Russian alphabet

6. The Russian cursive: Russian alphabet written

7. Summary: The Russian alphabet in a nutshell

Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European language family group. Other East Slavic languages are Belarusian and Ukrainian. All east Slavic languages are quite similar (sounds and writing). Thus, the majority of Russian speakers understand general discussions in Belarusian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian languages. Knowing the Russian alphabet opens the door into the big world of Cyrillic alphabets as there are nore than 50 languages using the Cyrillic script.

What other languages are using Cyrillic alphabets?

More than 50 languages, Slavik and non-Slavic, are using the Cyrillic alphabets:

• Belarusian, 
• Bulgarian, 
• Kazakh, 
• Kyrgyz, 
• Macedonian, 
• Montenegrin (spoken in Montenegro; also called Serbian), 
• Serbian, 
• Tajik (a dialect of Persian), 
• Turkmen, 
• Ukrainian, 
• Uzbek,
• Mongolian,
• Gagauz and some others.

History of the Russian alphabet: Cyril and Methodius

The Cyrillic alphabet resulted from the missionary work of the 9th-century “Apostles of the Slavs,” St. Cyril (святой Кирилл) and St. Methodius (святой Мефодий), hence the name of the script – “Cyrillic” (Кири́ллица). It is derived from one of the founding fathers of the Russian language – Saint Cyril. In the eighth century, together with his brother, Methodius, they devised the Glagolitic (Глаголица), the oldest Slavic alphabet that was used to translate the Gospels and liturgic books. 

The Cyrillic script bears the cultural and linguistic value of the Russian-speaking people. There is a strong connection between the Russian language, the Slavic nations, and the Eastern Orthodox traditions. As with any other language, the Russian script and alphabet enable the written transmission of knowledge, ideas, and emotions between the East-Slavic nations. It fosters a sense of unity and enhances the feeling of shared identity and belonging.

The Russian alphabet used to have more letters

Russian Alphabet (ру́сский алфави́т) consists of 33 letters, of which there are ten vowels, 21 consonants, one semivowel and 2 letters-signs (silent letters). Yes, you read it correctly! There are 2 letters that are not pronounced at all; however, they indicate how a previous letter in a word should sound – either the sound is hard or soft.

If the number of letters (33) in the modern alphabet impressed you, you maybe surprised that it used to be even longer. Before 1918, it had extra five letters. These were:

I – pronounced I; 

Ѳ – pronounced f; 

Ѣ – pronounced ɛ; 

Ѵ – pronounced i; 

‘ – wasn’t pronounced at all but had a meaning of English “or”.

Not enough? OK, wait ’till you hear this… Russian had another eight letters before the year 1750. These were:

Ѕ – pronounced dzʲ, zʲ; 

Ѯ – pronounced ks; 

Ѱ – pronounced ps; 

Ѡ – pronounced ɔ; 

Ѧ – pronounced ɛ̃; 

Ѩ – pronounced jɛ̃; 

Ѫ – pronounced ɔ̃; 

Ѭ – pronounced jɔ̃; 

Well, even the old Russian alphabet wasn’t as lengthy as the Khmer alphabet, but we might agree that 46 letters are quite overwhelming for modern times. Luckily, the Russian language reforms removed these 13 letters. Plus, there are also speculations that further rarely used letters (Ы, Ь, Ъ) are marked for removal; however, they are still used to the date. 

Russian Alphabet Letters and Pronunciation

Russian Letters

• Consonants: Б, В, Г, Д, Ж, З, К, Л, М, Н, П, Р, С, Т, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ
• Vowels: А, Е, Ё, И, О, У, Ы, Э, Ю, Я
• Signs: Ъ (hard sign), Ь (soft sign)

Many Russian Letters are pronounced and even look similar to letters from the Germanic and Italic families

Five Russian letters look and sound similar in English. For instance, to an anglophone, Russian capital letters A, K, M, O, and T look and are pronounced in a word exactly the same way. Though, the same case letters might look a bit different. Small M you write as м, while T as т. 

You can also discover 13 Russian letters that look actually different but sound similar to English letters, but you write them otherwise. These are:

б – pronounced B;  

в – pronounced V;

г – pronounced G like in the word “Galaxy”; 

д – pronounced D; 

з – pronounced Z; 

л – pronounced L; 

н – pronounced N; 

п – pronounced P;

р – pronounced R;

с – pronounced S;

ф – pronounced f;

у – pronounced “U” like in the word “Rumor”;

и – pronounced “I” like in the word “Independent”;

э – pronounced “E” like in the word “Elaborate”;

The remaining letters, apart from signs, require several English letters to pronounce. These are:

е – pronounced “YE”; 

ё – pronounced “YO”;

х – pronounced “KH”; 

ц – pronounced “TS”;

ч – pronounced “CH”;

ш – pronounced “SH”;

щ – pronounced “TSH”;

ю – pronounced “YU”;

я – pronounced “YA”;

One letter in the Russian language is quite peculiar in terms of pronunciation. This letter is “Ы“. Your best bet to learn more about this letter is to reserve lessons with a native speaking tutor.

How to Learn the Russian Alphabet: 10 useful resources

Learning the Russian alphabet can be real fun if you take it with a flexible approach.

Here are the 10 useful resources, videos and links to the visual and audio material that will help you learn it. Try several types of resources, both audio and visual, so that you create quick connection with the letters, sounds and phonemes of the Russian alphabet.

YouTube video resources for learning the Russian alphabet

1. Learn how to read in Russian in 13 minutes
2. Examples and Slow Pronunciation:

In this video, you’ll learn the Russian alphabet, the pronunciation of all letters, and see examples of words with each letter. You’ll notice that most letters have an equivalent in English.

3. RUSSIAN ALPHABET (slow pronunciation)

Listen to the Russian alphabet in slow motion :)))) and repeat the names of the Russian letters with their sounds.

4. The YouTube channel “Russian Level1” is an excellent channel for learning Russian.

On this channel you can learn how to pronounce Russian letters and learn how to read your first words in Russian. This is a perfect channel to learn Russian online and to learn the Russian alphabet for English speakers.

Useful links for the beginners of Russian to learn Russian letters, sounds and pronunciation

5. Russian cursive – Russian writing tutorial for beginners

6. Russian cursive alphabet and all it’s secrets

7. Russian alphabet with sound and handwriting

The best Russian language native tutors: learning alphabet Russian pronunciation with a professional

8. Learn the perfect alphabet Russian pronunciation with Anastasia at Lonet.Academy

9. Choose the best Russian teacher, tutor or coach online and become fluent in Russian.

10. The best study books to learn Russian.

Is it hard to learn Russian?

Russian isn’t the easiest language to learn, especially Russian syntax and morphology. Nevertheless, it certainly isn’t the hardest. In terms of difficulty, respondents usually assess it as a moderately hard language to learn. It takes time, but your efforts are absolutely worth it. Apart from what was already mentioned, Russian is the native language of marvelous writers and poets – Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov.

It is a good idea to add learning a language into your daily routine.

The Russian Alphabet in a Nutshell

• The Russian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic script
• It has 33 letters
• It includes 21 consonants and 10 vowels.
• The Russian alphabet has 1 weird semivowel letter 
• It also has 2 silent letters (signs)
• Most of the sounds are similar to English
• It has printed and written scripts
• More than 50 languages are using the Cyrillic script
• The Russian alphabet used to have more letters

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