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What's the Russian alphabet like?

The Russian alphabet has 33 letters.
You may well have to spell out your name and perhaps your address in Russian. Here is the alphabet and how to pronounce it

- right click and choose 'save target as'

What's significant about the Russian alphabet?

• Made by Saints

  Russian is written in the Cyrillic script. It was created in the 9th century by the Saints Cyril and Methodius, two brothers born in Thessaloniki. The alphabet originally contained 43 letters - 24 of them based on the Greek alphabet.

  Written Russian grew out of the Slavonic writings of the Church. Today the Russian alphabet has 33 letters.

• Strange sounds

  One of the main difficulties for people learning Russian as a foreign language is the pronunciation of some letters that don't exist in other languages. The hard ones are 听褘 (a "grunted" kind of i, as in "pill"), 听褖 (a sharp double sh-sound) and 听泄 (y as in "yes").

  The letters 褗 and 褜 might also cause problems as the first one is never pronounced and the second just softens the previous consonants.

  Learners of the Russian language should be grateful to the Bolsheviks for abandoning a few other letters from the Cyrillic alphabet.

• Standard Russian

  Something that helps is that some Russian letters are identical to Latin ones:
  A, E, K, M, O and T. No problems here.

  Something that doesn't help is that some Russian letters look like Latin ones, but sound completely different: B is V, H is N, P is R, C is S, Y is U and X is H.

  So if you're hungry, look for a PECTOPAH - it's a RESTORAN, restaurant. And if you're thirsty, look for a 袘础笔 - a BAR, where you can always find a 罢驰础袥袝罢, TUALET, or toilet.

  The name 叠懈泻褌芯褉 is as popular in England as it is in Russia - it's Viktor. As is 叠邪褉胁邪褉邪, Varvara - Barbara.

• More consonants!

  Another odd thing in Russian is that there often seem to be more consonants in a word than vowels, eg.
  听屑谐谢邪, haze
  听胁蟹胁芯写, platoon
  听袠褉泻褍褌褋泻, Irkutsk, Siberian city

  You might be unable and unwilling to pronounce the name of the small Russian town 听袛屑懈褌褉懈械胁-袥褜谐辞胁褋泻懈泄, Dmitriyev-Lgovsky, but if you're still going to invest in Russia you must teach yourself the family name of 听小褌褉卸邪谢泻芯胁褋泻懈泄, Strzhalkovsky, CEO of Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, and 听袪芯褋锌褉懈褉芯写薪邪写蟹芯褉, Rosprirodnadzor, Russia鈥檚 environmental watchdog.
  Being able to roll the r helps a lot, but don't worry if you can't - Lenin didn't manage to either.

• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address the conventions are:
  听@听褋芯斜邪泻邪 / 褋芯斜邪褔泻邪, dog / little dog
  听.听褌芯褔泻补, dot
  听/听褋谢械褕, slash