Russian Alphabet and Pronunciation

Editor's note: This lesson is written by PRIVET!, a school of the Russian language in Kaliningrad, Russia.

Here you can listen to the Russian Alphabet pronounced by a native speaker: RealAudio

Russian letter	Sounds like in English word	Sound and how it is marked	Comments
Аа	father	a
Бб	bomb	b
Вв	vault	v
Гг	go	g
Дд	do	d
Ее	vet	e	soft
Ёё	Yo!	yo	one sound
Жж	vision	zh	one sound
Зз	zebra	z
Ии	field	i
Йй	short "yi"	yi
Кк	kinky	k
Лл	loony	l	soft
Мм	monk	m
Нн	no	n
Оо	long	o
Пп	pot	p
Рр	corrida	r	strong, like in Spanish
Сс	sucks	s
Тт	take	t
Уу	look	u or oo	marked "oo" when longer
Фф	fake	f
Хх	host	kh	like strong "h"
Цц	mats	ts
Чч	cheeky	ch
Шш	shock	sh
Щщ	shch	shch
Ъъ	silent		separates two letters
Ыы	busy or above	y	it's like more open "e" and "i" together
Ьь	onion		softens the previous letter
Ээ	land	e	more open
Юю	mute	yu
Яя	yankee	ya

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