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Russian Alphabet

Reading in Russian --> Alphabet

Below you will find the Russian alphabet in its normal dictionary order.

Uppercase Lowercase Name Basic Meaning
A a [a]     [a]    
Б б [be]     [b]    
В в [ve]     [v]    
Г г [ge]     [g]    
Д д [de]     [d]    
Е е [ye]     [ye]    
Ё ё [yo]     [yo]    
Ж ж [je]     [j]    
З з [ze]     [z]    
И и [i]     [i]    
Й й [i kratkaye]     [y]    
К к [ka]     [k]    
Л л [el]     [l]    
М м [em]     [m]    
Н н [en]     [n]    
О о [o]     [o]    
П п [pe]     [p]    
Р р [er]     [r]    
С с [es]     [s]    
Т т [te]     [t]    
У у [oo]     [oo]    
Ф ф [ef]     [f]    
Х х [ha]     [h]    
Ц ц [tse]     [ts]    
Ч ч [che]     [ch]    
Ш ш [sha]     [sh]    
Щ щ [scha]     [sch]    
Ъ ъ [tv'ordiy znak]     -
Ы ы [i]     [i]    
Ь ь [m'ahkiy znak]     -
Э э [e]     [e]    
Ю ю [yoo]     [yoo]    
Я я [ya]     [ya]    


Here we present some facts about the Russian alphabet that could be interesting for you.

The Russian alphabet is also referred to as Cyrillic alphabet because one of its authors was a Greek monk St. Cyril. St. Cyril and St. Methodius created the early version of the Cyrillic alphabet in the 10th century. These monks combined letters of the Greek alphabet with new characters for the specifically Slavonic sounds. Cyril's disciples later formalized the Slavic language that is called Old Church Slavonic (We cannot speak about the "Russian" language prior to the 14th century).

The Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas English is written with the Latin alphabet. However, there are a few letters that are shared by both languages. Still other letters may be familiar to you from basic mathematics and the names of college fraternities and sororities. As you use this site, you will quickly become familiar with the letters of the Russian alphabet and sounds, and soon you will be able to recognize them instantly.