The Russian alphabet: all 33 letters
The Russian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters, and fewer of them are genuinely new than it looks: six already read like their Latin lookalikes, six are false friends that look Latin but sound nothing like it, and the rest are new shapes or new sounds. Learn each letter here, then type it immediately, in the same trainer that teaches keyboard layouts.
How many Russian letters do you already know?
The 33 letters split cleanly into five groups, ordered by how much they'll actually trip you up. Every glyph below links to its own page: sound, shape, and real words that use it.
The false friends(6 letters)
Look like a Latin letter, sound nothing like it. The traps that catch every beginner.
New shapes(10 letters)
An unfamiliar glyph, but a sound English already has.
Which Russian letters look like English letters but aren't?
Six letters are the traps that catch every beginner: В, Н, Р, С, У, and Х all look like a Latin letter, and all six sound like a completely different one. Get comfortable with these six specifically and the rest of the alphabet is far less intimidating.
- В вLooks like the Latin B. It is not: В is a V, as in "van".
- Н нLooks like the Latin H. It is not: Н is an N, as in "net".
- Р рLooks like the Latin P. It is not: Р is a rolled R.
- С сLooks like the Latin C. It is not: С always says S, as in "set", never K.
- У уLooks like the Latin Y. It is not: У is a pure oo sound, as in "boot".
- Х хLooks like the Latin X. It is not: Х is a breathy "kh", as in the Scottish "loch", never "ks".
How do you type Russian without knowing ЙЦУКЕН?
Real Russian keyboards use ЙЦУКЕН, an arrangement with no relationship to the Latin alphabet, so typing on it before you can read Cyrillic is a blind memory test. Polytaipe also ships a phonetic layout, where each Latin key produces the Cyrillic letter that sounds like it (A types а, V types в), so you can start typing real Russian words on day one and graduate to ЙЦУКЕН later.
Read more in how to type in Russian, see the full transliteration table, or compare the phonetic layout against ЙЦУКЕН directly.