Phabetia

The Russian alphabet

Russian Cyrillic has 33 letters and is, of all the alphabets that are not ours, the one most people set out to learn: it is used in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and a dozen more countries, with small variations in each.

Its reputation for being hard is unfair and rests on a misunderstanding: the letters are not strange, it is that many of them look far too much like ours and mean something else. Р is an R. С is an S. Н is an N. В is a V. У is a U. And Х sounds like the ch in loch. These are the false friends, and they are the real content of learning Cyrillic.

The rest is more rewarding than people fear: as soon as you can read the letters, a pile of international words appear in front of you —ресторан, банк, метро, такси— that you already knew without ever studying Russian.

The 33 letters of the Russian alphabet

Uppercase Lowercase Name Sounds like Looks like
А а A A
Б б Be B
В в Ve V B
Г г Ge G
Д д De D A
Е е Ye E
Ё ё Yo YO E
Ж ж Zhe ZH
З з Ze Z E
И и I I N
Й й Short I Y N
К к Ka K
Л л El L
М м Em M
Н н En N H
О о O O
П п Pe P
Р р Er R P
С с Es S C
Т т Te T
У у U U Y
Ф ф Ef F
Х х Kha KH X
Ц ц Tse TS
Ч ч Che CH Y
Ш ш Sha SH
Щ щ Shcha SHCH
Ъ ъ Hard sign ''
Ы ы Yery Y
Ь ь Soft sign '
Э э E E
Ю ю Yu YU
Я я Ya YA

Words to practise

How you learn it in Phabetia

Every new letter is introduced first with its name and its Latin equivalent, and you have to recognise it before you start practising it. Then come the exercises: letter to sound, sound to letter, quick memory, telling it apart from the Latin letter it resembles, spotting the intruder, completing a word and reading one.

Characters arrive two or three at a time and are never dropped: each level carries the previous ones along. What you get wrong comes back sooner and more often; what you have mastered shows up rarely, and anything you have not seen for days climbs back up on its own.

There are no lives and no punishment: getting one wrong interrupts nothing. To move on you only need 70 % right.

Frequently asked questions

How many letters does the Russian alphabet have?

Thirty-three. Two of them, the hard sign (ъ) and the soft sign (ь), have no sound of their own: they change the consonant before them.

Does Russian Cyrillic work for Ukrainian or Bulgarian?

Largely yes: they share most of their letters. Each variant adds or drops a few, so someone who reads Russian already recognises nearly everything else.

Which letters get confused the most?

The ones with a Latin shape and a different sound: В, Н, Р, С, У and Х. Phabetia drills them separately, with an exercise devoted to telling them apart from the Latin letter they resemble.

Other alphabets