LESSON 3

How to Write Russian Letters

Modern Russian alphabet consists For every letter in the table you will find:
of 33 letters. Russian has • Block letter • Letter name
10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 signs. • Written letter • Sound pronunciation
Аа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё *(1)

а бэ вэ гэ дэ е ё
[a] [b] [v] [g] [d] [ye]/[e] [yo]/[o]

Жж Зз Ии Йй *(2) Кк Лл Мм

жэ зэ и й (и краткое) ка эл эм
[zh] [z] [i] [y] [k] [l] [m]

Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу

эн о пэ эр эс тэ у
[n] [o] [p] [r] [s] [t] [oo]

Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ ъ *(3)

эф ха цэ че ша ща твёрдый
знак
[f] [h] [ts] [ch’] [sh] [sh’] -

Ыы *(4) ь *(3) Ээ Юю Яя * 1.2. Letter Ё is often printed as Е.

Й — soft consonant that is writ-
ten only after vowels.
3. Soft and hard signs (ь, ъ) do
not have sound value and are
written only after consonants. Soft
sign (ь) softens consonants. In
ы мягкий знак э ю я transcriptions it is denoted by [’].
[i:] - [’] [e] [yoo]/[oo] [ya]/[a] 4. There is no Russian word that
starts with the letter ы.