Russian Language

At first sight, the Russian language seems very daunting but it doesn't take long to master a few basics which will make all the difference. Until a couple of years ago, it was only possible to find signs and notices in Cyrillic. Today, the Latin equivalent is found as well on signs and maps, most noticeably on street names and on metro maps.

The key to it all is being able to read and understand the individual letters. The few spoken words you will need are sometimes similar or the same as in English. For example, Metro is Metro, Bus is Avtobus, Tram is Tramvy, Restaurant is Restauran, Bar is Bar. Below is a table with the Cyrillic alphabet, the equivalent Latin letter or combination of letters, the name of the letter and how it is pronounced. It has also been indicated if the letter is a vowel but this is not really important.

You may notice that there are 33 letters instead of the 26 we are used to. Don't worry, Russian's have a letter for certain sounds. For example, in English 's' and h' together is a 'shhh' sound which is very different from the two letters by themselves. Instead of putting 2 letters together, Cyrillic has a separate letter. You'll soon get the hang of it. If you scroll a bit further down, you'll find a few useful words and phrases.

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You'll soon get the hang of it. If you scroll a bit further down, you'll find a few useful words and phrases.

The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: 21 consonants, 10 vowels, and two letters without sound - soft sign and hard sign

Just to add further confusion, sometimes the letter 'T' will also appear in a different form.

The picture to the left shows the Metro station (Arbatskaya). As you can see, the word 'METRO' is written in Cyrillic but the letter 'T' is different. This is the hand-written form although in some cases you will see it on signs. If you look carefully at the picture, you will see it is different from the letter 'M'.

Some Useful Phrases

Numbers

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