You can learn to read Cyrillic in a day, because the Russian alphabet has only thirty-three letters and is spelled far more consistently than English. Learn it in four groups: letters that match English, false friends like Р (r), Н (n), В (v) and С (s), new shapes with familiar sounds, and three with no English equivalent.
А, К, М, О and Т look like their English twins and sound close to them: кот (kot) is a cat, том (tom) is a volume of a book. Two warnings already. Russian Т and К are not followed by the puff of air English gives them, and О sounds like "o" only when it is stressed. More on that at the end.
These seven letters are the reason a Russian restaurant sign reads PECTOPAH to an English speaker. Once you know them, you can read it: РЕСТОРАН (restoran).
| Letter | Looks like | Actually sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| В в | B | v | вода (voda), water |
| Е е | E | ye, as in "yes" | есть (yest'), to eat |
| Н н | H | n | нос (nos), nose |
| Р р | P | r, tapped with the tongue tip | рука (ruka), hand |
| С с | C | s, never k | сок (sok), juice |
| У у | y | oo, as in "food" | суп (sup), soup |
| Х х | X | kh, like ch in Scottish "loch" | хлеб (khleb), bread |
A useful drill: read these words that are almost English once decoded. ТАКСИ (taksi), МЕТРО (metro), КАФЕ (kafe), ТЕАТР (teatr), ТУАЛЕТ (tualet), БАНК (bank). The point is not the vocabulary but training your eyes to stop seeing Р as P and Н as H.
One more trap waits in italics and handwriting. In italic type and cursive, lowercase т looks like an English m, п looks like n, и looks like u and д looks like g. If a word on a menu suddenly seems impossible, check whether it is set in italics.
| Letter | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Б б | b | брат (brat), brother |
| Г г | g, as in "go" | город (gorod), city |
| Д д | d | дом (dom), house |
| Ж ж | zh, like s in "pleasure" | журнал (zhurnal), magazine |
| З з | z | зонт (zont), umbrella |
| И и | ee, as in "see" | и (i), and |
| Й й | short y, as in "boy" | чай (chay), tea |
| Л л | l | лампа (lampa), lamp |
| П п | p | почта (pochta), post office |
| Ф ф | f | фото (foto), photo |
| Ц ц | ts, as in "cats" | центр (tsentr), center |
| Ч ч | ch, as in "church" | час (chas), hour |
| Ш ш | sh | школа (shkola), school |
| Щ щ | a long, soft sh | борщ (borshch), beet soup |
| Э э | e, as in "bet" | это (eto), this |
| Ю ю | yu, as in "you" | юг (yug), south |
| Я я | ya, as in "yard" | я (ya), I |
| Ё ё | yo, as in "yogurt" | ёлка (yolka), fir tree |
Я looks like a backward R and И like a backward N, which helps you remember they are vowels, not R and N.
Russian spelling is consistent, but it does not show stress, and stress changes how vowels sound. Normal texts carry no stress marks; dictionaries, textbooks and children's books add an accent mark over the stressed vowel.
The biggest surprise for English speakers is that unstressed о sounds like "a". Молоко (milk) is said ma-la-KO. Хорошо (good) is kha-ra-SHO. Москва is mas-KVA, and спасибо (thank you) is spa-SEE-ba. Unstressed е and я move toward a short "i": сестра (sister) sounds close to si-STRA, and язык (language) close to yi-ZYK. If you pronounce every о as written, you will sound like a careful reader rather than a speaker.
Stress can also change meaning or move inside a word. ЗА-мок is a castle and за-МОК is a lock, same spelling. Рука (hand) is ru-KA, but its accusative руку is RU-ku. And because ё is always stressed but often printed as plain е, все (vse, everyone) and всё (vsyo, everything) can look identical on the page.
Two more rules finish the picture. Voiced consonants at the end of a word lose their voice: хлеб sounds like khlep, город like GO-rat. And a few common words break the spelling: что (what) is said shto, его (him) is yi-VO, and сегодня (today) is si-VOD-nya.
By the end of the day you will read slowly but correctly. Speed comes from reading words you hear, so the next step is to say them aloud, to a tutor or to yourself on a metro platform, until молоко comes out as ma-la-KO without thinking.
Thirty-three: ten vowels, twenty-one consonants, and two signs, the soft sign and the hard sign, which have no sound of their own.
Cyrillic took many letters from Greek. Р comes from the Greek rho, which is written like a P and sounds like r. The English P comes from a different Greek letter, pi, so the shapes match only by coincidence.
Not in everyday writing. Stress marks appear in dictionaries, textbooks and children's books, so learners should look up the stress of each new word.
Much more than English, but not completely. Spelling stays the same while unstressed vowels reduce and final consonants lose their voice, so молоко is written with three o letters and said ma-la-KO.
