Language/Russian/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Russian Alphabet & Pronunciation

Hello Polyglots 😎

In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Russian alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.

You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.

Russian Alphabet and IPA Pronunciation

Russian is a Slavic language, such as Polish or Czech, written with the Cyrillic alphabet, inspired by the Greek alphabet.

Caps	Minisculs	Name	Prononciation IPA	Transcription	English Equivalent	Sound	Letter Name in Russian
А	а	а	/a/	a	А а	Like "a" in car	"ah"
Б	б	бэ	/b/, /bʲ/	b	B b	Like "b" in bat	"beh"
В	в	вэ	/v/, /vʲ/	v	V v	Like "v" in van	"veh"
Г	г	гэ	/ɡ/, /gʲ/	g	G g	Like "g" in go	"geh"
Д	д	дэ	/d/, /dʲ/	d	D d	Like "d" in dog	"deh"
Е	е	е	/je/, / ʲe/, /e/	e	YE ye	Like "ye" in yet	"yeh"
Ё	ё	ё	/jo/, / ʲɵ/	ë	YO yo	Like "yo" in yonder	"yo"
Ж	ж	жэ	/ʐ/	ž	Zh zh	Like "s" in measure or pleasure or like "g" in beige (the colour)	"zheh"
З	з	зэ	/z/, /zʲ/	z	Z z	Like "z" in zoo	"zeh"
И	и	и	/i/, / ʲi/,, /ɨ/	i	EE ee	Like "ee" in see	"ee"
Й	й	и краткое	/j/	j	I i or Y y	like "y" in boy or toy	"ee kratkoyeh"
К	к	ка	/k/, /kʲ/	k	K k	Like "k" in kitten, "c" in cat.	"kah"
Л	л	эл, эль	/l/, /lʲ/	l	L l	Like "l" in light	"ehl"
М	м	эм	/m/, /mʲ/	m	M m	Like "m" in mat	"ehm"
Н	н	эн	/n/, /ɲ/	n	N n	Like "n" in no	"ehn"
О	о	о	/o/, /ɐ/	o	Stressed: O o Unstressed: A a	Like "o" in bore Like "a" in car	"oh"
П	п	пэ	/p/, /pʲ/	p	P p	Like "p" in pot	"peh"
Р	р	эр	/r/, /rʲ/	r	R r	Like "r" in run (rolled)	"ehr"
С	с	эс	/s/, /sʲ/	s	S s	Like "s" in sam	"ehs"
Т	т	тэ	/t/, /tʲ/	t	T t	Like "t" in tap	"teh"
У	у	у	/u/	u	U u	Like "oo" in boot	"oo"
Ф	ф	эф	/f/, /fʲ/	f	F f	Like "f" in fat	"ehf"
Х	х	ха	/x/, /xʲ/	x	H h, KH kh	Like "h" in hello or like the "ch" in Scottish 'loch' or German 'Bach'	"khah"
Ц	ц	цэ	/t͡s/	c	TS ts	Like "ts" in bits	"tseh"
Ч	ч	че	/t͡ɕ/	č	CH ch	Like "ch" in chip	"cheh"
Ш	ш	ша	/ʂ/	š	SH sh (hard)	Like "sh" in shut	"shah"
Щ	щ	ща	/ɕɕ/	šč	SH sh (soft)	Like "sh" in sheep	"schyah"
Ъ	ъ	твёрдый знак		''	Hard Sign	Letter before is hard	"tvyordiy znahk"
Ы	ы	ы	/ɨ/	y	I i	Like "i" in ill	"i"
Ь	ь	мягкий знак	/ ʲ/	'	Soft Sign	Letter before is soft	"myagkeey znahk"
Э	э	э	/e/	è	E e	Like "e" in pet	"eh"
Ю	ю	ю	/ju/, / ʲu/	ju	YU yu	Like "u" in use or university	"yoo"
Я	я	я	/ja/, / ʲa/	ja	YA ya	Like "ya" in yard.	"yah"

Italic characters

The cursive letters which are significantly different from the normal printed version are noted in bold.

Those are worth learning because they are often used and look like the hand-written form of Russian.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	П п	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я
А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	П п	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

Cursive Letters (hand writing

Watch the video below to learn how to write the cursive language letters of the Russian alphabet:

Notes

The Russian l is velar, it is pronounced as English well or as the old French chevals: one pronounced then s of the plural (that is why the pronunciation was then modified in "cheva-or "Then" chevo "writes Chevaux)

At the end of the word, the sound consonants become deaf, as in German, they pronounce then:

• b > p
• v > f
• g > k
• d > t
• z > s 

The Russian has 5 vocalic phonemes noted by 10 graphemes: 

a	e	i	o	u
а	э	ы	о	у	After a hard consonant
я	е	и	ё	ю	After a soft consonant or yod

NOTE: If Russian word contains 'ё', the accent is always on this vowel. Therefore, the accent mark is not placed above 'ё'.

The use of the letter 'ё' is mandatory in texts with consistently placed accent marks, in books for young children (including textbooks for elementary school students), in textbooks for foreigners. In ordinary printed texts, it`s written in cases where a misreading of the word is possible, when it`s necessary to indicate the correct pronunciation of a rare word or to prevent a speech error. The letter 'ё' should also be written in proper names. In other cases, the use of 'ё' is optional.

Examples

(In brackets the transcription & bracketed phonetics)

ад (ad) [at] Hell	яд (jad) [jat] poison
мыло (mylo) [mɨlo] soap	мило (milo) [mjilo] nice
лук (luk) [luk] onion	люк (ljuk) [ljuk] hatch

These wet sounds are not necessarily transcribed in French. Thus the name of the first president of Russia was Борис Ельцин in Russian, Boris Yeltsin in English and French: Boris Yeltsin (but pronouncing "Yeltsin").

Russian Online Virtual Keyboard