Russian uses Cyrillic — and most learners give up before they've even tried it because it looks alien. It's not. Cyrillic has 33 letters and is more phonetic than English. The trap is that several letters look exactly like Latin letters but make completely different sounds (С is /s/, not /k/). Hear them all below — the alien feeling will be gone in 10 minutes, and you'll start reading Russian street signs before the end of the week.
What you'll walk away with
- Hear all 33 Russian letters spoken by a native Moscow voice
- Avoid the 'Cyrillic trap' — the 6 letters that look Latin but aren't
- Walk away able to read any Russian word aloud, even if you don't know what it means
The Russian alphabet, one tap at a time
Every letter below is tap-to-hear. The first form is the letter; the italic name is what you say when reciting the alphabet — that's what plays when you tap. Example words are tap-to-hear in native Russian.
- А а — /a / ɐ/ — аист (stork)
- Б бэ — /b/ — брат (brother)
- В вэ — /v/ — вода (water)
- Г гэ — /ɡ/ — город (city)
- Д дэ — /d/ — дом (house)
- Е е — /je / e/ — ехать (to go)
- Ё ё — /jo/ — ёлка (fir tree)
- Ж жэ — /ʐ/ — жизнь (life)
- З зэ — /z/ — звезда (star)
- И и — /i/ — имя (name)
- Й и краткое — /j/ — йогурт (yogurt)
- К ка — /k/ — кошка (cat)
- Л эль — /l/ — луна (moon)
- М эм — /m/ — мама (mom)
- Н эн — /n/ — ночь (night)
- О о — /o / ɐ/ — окно (window)
- П пэ — /p/ — парк (park)
- Р эр — /r/ — рука (hand)
- С эс — /s/ — солнце (sun)
- Т тэ — /t/ — там (there)
- У у — /u/ — утро (morning)
- Ф эф — /f/ — фрукт (fruit)
- Х ха — /x/ — хлеб (bread)
- Ц цэ — /ts/ — цветок (flower)
- Ч че — /tɕ/ — час (hour)
- Ш ша — /ʂ/ — школа (school)
- Щ ща — /ɕː/ — щётка (brush)
- Ъ твёрдый знак — (hard sign) — объект (object)
- Ы ы — /ɨ/ — сын (son)
- Ь мягкий знак — (soft sign) — мать (mother)
- Э э — /ɛ/ — это (this)
- Ю ю — /ju/ — юг (south)
- Я я — /ja/ — яблоко (apple)
The Cyrillic trap and how to beat it in one sitting
Six insights that take Cyrillic from intimidating to almost embarrassingly readable.
- The Cyrillic trap — letters that look Latin but aren't. В is /v/, not "B". Н is /n/, not "H". Р is /r/, not "P". С is /s/, not "C". У is /u/, not "Y". Х is /x/ (like German ch), not "X". Memorize these six and Cyrillic is suddenly readable.
- Soft sign Ь and hard sign Ъ make no sound on their own. The soft sign palatalizes the preceding consonant (softens it); the hard sign separates it from a following yotated vowel. They're modifiers, not letters with their own sound.
- Е, Ё, Ю, Я are the "yotated" vowels — at the start of a word or after a vowel they carry a /j/ sound: Я = "ya", Юг = "yook", Ёлка = "YOL-kah".
- Unstressed О is reduced to /ɐ/ — молоко (milk) sounds like "ma-la-KO", not "mo-lo-ko". Russian vowels famously soften when they're not stressed.
- Ж, Ш, and Ц are always hard — even when followed by a soft-vowel letter. The spelling lies; the pronunciation tells the truth.
- Ы is the famous "barred i" — say /i/ with your tongue pulled back. There's no English equivalent. Don't try to map it; just listen and copy.
Why Russian is more readable than its reputation suggests
Russian's reputation for difficulty is mostly about scale and grammar — not the alphabet. Cyrillic itself is highly phonetic, and once you stop reading Russian letters as Latin lookalikes, you'll be reading street signs in a week and books in a month.
Ready to turn these sounds into real conversation?
Knowing the alphabet is step zero. Sounding native is the goal. Lingden teaches Russian through real sentences, with native audio and IPA on every word — so the sounds you just heard become words, the words become sentences, and the sentences become conversation. Free forever for one language. No card required.