Study Russian Online

Russian letters denoting
consonant sounds

Reading in Russian --> Learn Russian alphabet --> Lesson 3

In this lesson, you can work with 11 Russian letters denoting consonant sounds, and two special Russian signs. These letters may seem unusual and new for English speaking people, since they look quite different from English letters.

Notice that Russian letters Б, Г, Д, Ж, Л, П, Ф and Ш are new for English speaking people, but the sounds they denote are similar to some English sounds. Russian letters Щ and Ц denote Russian sounds [sch]     and [ts]    , respectively, that are among the most difficult Russian sounds. The name of the letter Й does not truly reflect the sound it denotes, since it is read as (denotes the sound) [y]     in texts.

As a rule, the basic meaning of a consonant letter is the consonant sound which forms the name of this letter.

There are two special signs in Russian: soft sign ь and hard sign ъ. These letters do not designate any sound of their own. They indicate, respectively, softness and hardness of previous consonants. You can find more details about softness and hardness in the Russian language on the page Softness of consonants in Russian.

Listen and repeat the following Russian letters

Uppercase	Lowercase	Sound	Name
Б	б		[be]
Г	г		[ge]
Д	д		[de]
Ж	ж		[je]
Й	й		[i kratkaye]
Л	л		[el]
П	п		[pe]
Ф	ф		[ef]
Ц	ц		[tse]
Ш	Ш		[sha]
Щ	щ		[scha]
Ь	ь		[m'ahkiy znak]
Ъ	ъ		[tv'ordiy znak]

Listen to the sound and answer "yes" or "no"

Listen to the sounds and choose the corresponding Russian letter

Match sounds and letters

 

Listen to the sounds and type the corresponding letters in the text field

---

<< Previous lesson