Ch 1 · Lesson 5Russian · Chapter 1 · Lesson 5 · Grammar primer
Cyrillic in an afternoon
Thirty-three letters sorted into the ones you know, the false friends that catch everyone, and the two that make no sound at all. You never have to type them here.
The short version
Learn the six false friends first
, , . (Da, net, spasibo.)
Why?Hide
The letters that look like a Latin B, H, P, C, X and Y are pronounced v, n, r, s, the ch of loch and oo. Six characters, and they account for most beginner misreadings. Learn those deliberately and the rest of Cyrillic gives you very little trouble at all.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why. Read it through once, then come back and continue with the next lesson.
Read the full article · 7 min readLesson 5 of 43 in this chapter