Russian Language - LESSON 1:
The Russian Alphabet
CAPITAL | lower | Russian Name | Pronounced As | Transliteration | is Vowel? | Notes |
À | à | "ah" | a in car | a | x | |
Á | á | "beh" | b in bit | b | ||
 |
â | "veh" | v in vine | v | ||
à | ã | "geh" | g in go | g | ||
Ä | ä | "deh" | d in do | d | ||
Å | å | "yeh" | ye in yet | ye or e | x | |
¨ | ¸ | "yo" | yo in yolk | yo | x | |
Æ | æ | "zheh" | s in pleasure | zh | ||
Ç | ç | "zeh" | z in zoo | z | ||
È | è | "ee" | ee in see | i | x | |
É | é | "ee kratkoyeh"- "short ee" | y in boy | i or y (or j) | ||
Ê | ê | "kah" | k in kitten | k | ||
Ë | ë | "ehl" | l in lamp | l | ||
Ì | ì | "ehm" | m in map | m | ||
Í | í | "ehn" | n in not | n | ||
Î | î | "oh" | o in folk | o | x | |
Ï | ï | "peh" | p in pet | p | ||
Ð | ð | "ehr" | r in roll | r | 1 | |
Ñ | ñ | "ehs" | s in see | s | ||
Ò | ò | "teh" | t in tip | t | ||
Ó | ó | "oo" | oo in boot | u or oo | x | |
Ô | ô | "ehf" | f in face | f | ||
Õ | õ | "khah" | h in house | kh or h | 2 | |
Ö | ö | "tseh" | ts in sits | ts | ||
× | ÷ | "cheh" | ch in chip | ch | ||
Ø | ø | "shah" | sh in shut | sh | ||
Ù | ù |
"schyah" |
sh in sheep | sch | ||
ú | "tvyordiy znahk" - "hard sign" | 3 | ||||
Û | û | "i" | i in ill | y | x | |
ü | "myagkeey znahk" - "soft sign" | 4 | ||||
Ý | ý | "eh" | e in met | e | x | |
Þ | þ | "yoo" | u in use | yu | x | |
ß | ÿ | "yah" | ya in yard | ya | x |
1 - you have to really
"rrroll" your tongue to get it to sound Russian
2 - the hard sounded "h"
("house"), also compared to "x" sound when pronounced in Spanish (ex.:
"México"); is usually transliterated as "kh"
3 - is called the hard sign and used in modern Russian
spelling only as a separation sign
4 - is called the soft sign and is generally used to
indicate the softness of consonants
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- The hard and and soft signs could be
presented
by a single apostrophe
since they never take the same place in a word.
- In Russian, quotation marks appear like this: ,,gymnastics´´, the first
set is below the word
while the second set is above the word.
NEXT LESSON - Basic Grammar
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