The Cyrillic Alphabet
Russian uses Cyrillic — 33 letters. Many look like Latin letters and sound the same; some look familiar but sound different; some are completely new. Don't memorize all 33 today — you'll learn them by reading real words.
Letters that look and sound familiar
А (a), К (k), М (m), О (o), Т (t). These match what you'd guess from English. So мама is exactly mama, and кот is kot (cat).
False friends — same shape, different sound
В sounds like English V (not B). Н sounds like N. Р sounds like a rolled R. Р is the trickiest — when you see Р, think R. С sounds like S. У sounds like the 'oo' in 'boot'. Х sounds like the 'ch' in 'loch'.
Brand-new letters
Б = b, Г = g, Д = d, Ж = zh (like the 's' in 'measure'), З = z, И = ee, Л = l, П = p, Ф = f, Ц = ts, Ч = ch, Ш = sh, Щ = shch, Ы = a hard 'i' sound between 'i' and 'u', Э = eh, Ю = yu, Я = ya. Two 'silent' letters — Ъ and Ь — modify the sound of nearby consonants; you'll meet them in later lessons.
Stress matters
Russian has free stress — any syllable can be stressed, and unstressed 'o' often sounds like 'a'. Don't worry about the rules yet; just imitate what you hear and see in transliterations.
