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    Russian Alphabet

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    stormclark
    The Russian alphabet is called the Cyrillic alphabet and contains 33 letters - 11 vowels and 22 consonants. Many of the letters look similar to English letters but are pronounced differently. This document provides an overview of each letter in the Russian alphabet, including their sounds and examples. It also covers pronunciation rules and stresses important for pronouncing words correctly in Russian. Listeners are encouraged to practice the sounds by listening to audio examples provided.

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    Russian Alphabet

    Uploaded by

    stormclark
    416 views7 pages
    The Russian alphabet is called the Cyrillic alphabet and contains 33 letters - 11 vowels and 22 consonants. Many of the letters look similar to English letters but are pronounced differently. This document provides an overview of each letter in the Russian alphabet, including their sounds and examples. It also covers pronunciation rules and stresses important for pronouncing words correctly in Russian. Listeners are encouraged to practice the sounds by listening to audio examples provided.

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    The Russian alphabet is called the Cyrillic alphabet and contains 33 letters - 11 vowels and 22 consonants. Many of the letters look similar to English letters but are pronounced differently. This document provides an overview of each letter in the Russian alphabet, including their sounds and examples. It also covers pronunciation rules and stresses important for pronouncing words correctly in Russian. Listeners are encouraged to practice the sounds by listening to audio examples provided.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    416 views7 pages

    Russian Alphabet

    Uploaded by

    stormclark
    The Russian alphabet is called the Cyrillic alphabet and contains 33 letters - 11 vowels and 22 consonants. Many of the letters look similar to English letters but are pronounced differently. This document provides an overview of each letter in the Russian alphabet, including their sounds and examples. It also covers pronunciation rules and stresses important for pronouncing words correctly in Russian. Listeners are encouraged to practice the sounds by listening to audio examples provided.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    The key takeaways are that the Russian alphabet has 33 letters, some letters are pronounced similarly to English letters but others have different sounds, and stress on certain vowels changes their pronunciation.

    Some of the main differences between the Russian and English alphabets are that Russian has 33 letters total, 11 vowels and 20 consonants, and certain letters like B, V, G have different pronunciations than their English counterparts.

    Russian letters that look similar to English letters but have different sounds include В which is pronounced like 'v', Е like 'ye', Н like 'n', Р which is trilled like 'r', and С which is pronounced like 's'.

    Russian Alphabet The Russian alphabet is known as the Cyrillic alphabet. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet.

    11 vowels, 20 consonants, and 2 pronunciation signs. Here is what the Russian alphabet looks like (in dictionary order). , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Now let's have a look at these letters in detail. For your reference we will make some notes about unusual hand-written forms, however this will be covered in another lesson so don't worry too much yet. Russian letters that are (almost) the same. - Pronounced like the "a" in the word "father" or "car". It is not the 'flat' "a" sound you sometimes hear in words like "cat" or "flat". - Pronounced like the "k" in "kitten" or "kangaroo". This letter replaces the english "c" sound in words like "cat". - Pronounced like the "m" in man. (Note: Unlike english, the handwritten "" should always start from the bottom) O o - When stressed, it is pronounced like the "o" in "bore". When unstressed it is pronounced more like the letter "a". (See later notes.) - Pronounced like the "t" in "tap". (Note: The hand-written (and italic) form is "". It should always start from the top, as it looks quite similar to the letter "") Russian letters that look like english letters but sound different.

    (These are the most important to learn so you don't get them mixed up.) - Pronounced like the "v" in "vet". (Equivalent to the english letter "v"). - Pronounced like the "ye" in "yes". - Pronounced like the "n" in "no". (Equivalent to the english letter "n"). - Pronounced like the "r" in "run", but it is rolled. (Equivalent to the english letter "r"). - Pronounced like the "s" in "see". (Equivalent to the english letter "s"). (It might help to remember that it's used like the "s" sound in the english words "centre" and "cent".) - Pronounced like the "oo" in "boot" or "root". - Pronounced like the "h" in "hello". However, this is often pronounced more like the "ch" in the Scottish "Loch" or German "Bach", or the spanish "x" in "Mexico". Russian letters that look unusual, but have familiar sounds - Pronounced like the "b" in "bat". (Equivalent to the english letter "b"). - Pronounced like the "g" in "go". (Equivalent to the english letter "g"). - Pronounced like the "d" in "dog". (Equivalent to the english letter "d").

    - Pronounced like the "z" in "zoo". (Equivalent to the english letter "z"). - Pronounced like the "i" in "taxi". (Sometimes equivalent to the english letter "i", the short 'ee' sound.). (Note: The hand-written form for "" looks a little like the english "u"). - Pronounced like the "l" in "love". (Equivalent to the english letter "l"). - Pronounced like the "p" in "pot". (Equivalent to the english letter "p"). - Pronounced like the "f" in "fat". (Equivalent to the english letter "f"). - Pronounced like the "e" in "fed". New Russian letters and sounds (The sounds will be familiar, but they don't have their own letter in English). - Pronounced like the "u" in "universe". (Pronounced much like the english word "you"). - Pronounced like the "ya" in "yard". - Pronounced like "yo" in "yonder". - Like "s" in "measure", "pleasure" or "fusion" or like "g" in colour "beige". (As there is no english symbol for this sound, it is usually represented as "zh") - Similar to the "ts" sound in "sits" or "its".

    - Pronounced like the "ch" in "chips" or "church" . - Pronounced like the "sh" in shut. - Pronounced like "sh" but with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Try putting your tongue in the same position as you would to say "ch" but say "sh" instead. English speakers may find it hard to define the difference between "" and "". - Pronounced like the "i" in "bit" or "ill". (Said with your tongue slightly back in your mouth.) - This letter is used to form diphthongs. So "o" is like the "oy" sound in "boy" or "a" is like the "igh" in "sigh". Pronunciation Symbols (These letters have no sound on their own, but are still considered letters.). - The 'Hard Sign' is rarely used. It indicates a slight pause between sylables. - The 'Soft Sign' makes the previous letter 'soft'. Think of the "p" sound in the word "pew". (Try inflecting a very slight "y" sound onto letter before it.) A note about vowels You may have noticed that there are often two forms of a vowel, hard and soft. It may help to note the corresponding vowels. ("a") ("ya")

    ("e") ("ye") ("oo") ("yoo") ("o") ("yo") and are corresponding vowels but don't really follow this pattern. is also considered a vowel The "y" sound is always pronounced. It may take some time to get used to pronouncing it with consonants. Try the following: (No) - Pronounced "nyet". This is one syllable. (Seven) - Pronounced "syem". (Five) - Pronounced "pyat" o (Metro, underground railway) - Pronounced "mye-tro". Click the green play icon to listen to the word pronounced in Russian. Spelling Rule 1. There is a rule for spelling in russian you should keep in mind: "Never write , , or after the letters ', , , , , , ' instead use , , ". It is not important to worry about this yet, but it will help you understand how things are spelt in later lessons. A note about stress. In most languages, including English, some syllables are emphasised more than others. A good example would be the word photograph, where the first syllable is stressed. Compare this to Photography

    where the second symbol is stressed. Phonetically the sound of the vowel changes. Russian works in much the same way. However in some words its important to know which syllable is stressed, this is because the letter o is pronounced very differently depending on whether its stressed or not. Other stressed vowels are important, but if you only remember the o rule, then you will still be able to speak well. Once you start to hear Russians speak, you will be able to copy the way they are pronouncing words. (On this site we will indicate a stressed vowel by underlining it. However, we will only do this to the first occurrences of a word. One syllable words are assumed to be stressed.) Take notice of the following examples: (good-bye) - Pronounced "da-svee-da-nee-ye". (The is pronounced as if it is part of the next word). (thank-you) - Pronounced "spa-see-ba". (yes) - Pronounced "da". (no) - Pronounced "nyet". (100) - Pronounced "sto". (Bye) (Bad) (Good) Some Listening Practice

    There are many more examples in the following lessons that also have Russian audio that you can listen to. It is important you learn the sounds by listening to the Russian audio in the following lessons. If you learn by listening, your speach will be much clearer. There are hours of audio on this site. Here are some example sentences to get you started. Don't worry about learning the words, just try to learn the sounds of the letters. - (My mother loves music) - (six books) - (seven newspapers) - (eight buildings) - (nine dogs) - (ten students) - (one hundred roubles) - (one hundred dollars)

    Conclusion You have now seen how the whole alphabet works and is pronounced. It is time to practice, go to the exercises section of this lesson. Here you will be able to practice your new skills, reading words that are almost the same as the English equivalent. You may also wish to print a copy of the alphabet table for reference in future lessons.

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