Russian Months of the Year

Learn how to pronounce the names of the months in Russian. The terms for months are the easiest part of the Russian calendar vocabulary because they are very similar to the months in English. Note that in Russian, the months start with a small letter unless they are in the beginning of a sentence. In addition, the gender of all months in Russian is masculine.

Audio	Russian word	English translation	Pronunciation
Flash required.	январь	January	yeen-VAHR'
Flash required.	февраль	February	fee-VRAHL'
Flash required.	март	March	mahrt
Flash required.	апрель	April	ah-PRYEHL'
Flash required.	май	May	mahy
Flash required.	июнь	June	ee-YOON'
Flash required.	июль	July	ee-YOOL'
Flash required.	август	August	AHV-goost
Flash required.	сентябрь	September	seen-TYAHBR'
Flash required.	октябрь	October	ahk-TYAHBR'
Flash required.	ноябрь	November	nah-YAHBR'
Flash required.	декабрь	December	dee-KAHBR'

To ask "In what month... ?" use the phrase:
В каком месяце... ? [fkah-KOHM MYEH-see-tseh]

Prepositions Used with Months

In order to say that something is going to happen "in" a certain month, Russians use the preposition "в". If you'd like to say that something has been happening "since" a certain month, the preposition "c" should be used. The table below gives a few examples:

Russian word	English translation	Pronunciation
в январе	in January	v yeen-vah-RYEH
в июне	in June	v ee-YOO-nee
с августа	since August	s AHV-goos-tah
с декабря	since December	s dee-kah-BRYAH
месяц	a month	MYEH-seets
год	a year	goht
квартал	a quarter	kvahr-TAHL

Old Style vs. New Style Calendar

The Gregorian calendar is the most commonly used calendar in the world today. Before the October Revolution of 1917, the tsarist Russia operated on the Julian calendar and the term "Old Style" is historically used in reference to dates from the Imperial Russia.

After the October Revolution, the Soviet Union adopted the "New Style" Gregorian calendar which is widely used in contemporary Russia for business and day-to-day activities. However the Orthodox Church Russia continues to use the "Old Style" Julian calendar for religious and cultural affairs. Thus, the Christmas is celebrated in Russia on January 7th Gregorian, which corresponds to December 25th according to the "Old Style" Julian calendar. The "Old Style" calendar is currently 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar, which should be taken into account when calculating the dates of the historical events.

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