How to read and say Russian

Consonants and vowels in Russian (and Slavic generally) are soft (palatalized) or hard. Consonants are pronounced soft if followed by a soft vowel or the soft sign, else hard. Some consonants are always soft or always hard, regardless of the following vowel.

One important note: the cursive Russian alphabet looks very different from the printed alphabet. The printed alphabet is rarely used when writing by hand. (The same goes with other Cyrillic-written languages.) On the upside, though, as a traveler, you are quite unlikely to have to read much handwritten Russian!

Vowels

a ah

like father (IPA: a)

e yeh

like yesterday (IPA: je)

ё yoh

like yore (IPA: jɵ)

и ee

like seen or machine (IPA: i)

o oh

like score (IPA: o)

у oo

like cartoon (IPA: u)

ы yh

like roses (IPA: ɨ)

э eh

like end (IPA: ɛ)

ю yoo

like Yugoslavia (IPA: ju)

я yah

like yacht (IPA: ja)

Russian, like English, has something called vowel reduction, where the vowels take on different sounds if they are not in the stressed syllable of the word. The exact nature of this depends on the part of Russia one is located in, but generally (and abroad):

• The letters ю and я sound like their counterparts у and а respectively
• The letter е sounds like э when in the final syllable, or like и otherwise
• The letter о sounds like the letter а when in the syllable before the stressed syllable, or like a schwa otherwise (eg. the e in English chicken)
• The letter а sounds like the English hut (IPA: ə or ɐ)
• The letter у sounds like the English book (IPA: ʊ)
• All other vowels tend to make the sound of English ill (IPA: ɪ)

However, when traveling, you generally don't need to worry about reduction. Pronouncing all vowels as if they were stressed will seem like over-enunciation to a native speaker, but you'll be perfectly understood.

Unfortunately, ё is very often written as е, which can cause problems for non-native speakers, since pronouncing one over the other can change the meaning of a word. Fortunately, books oriented toward beginners (like dictionaries, grammar books, literature for foreigners, etc.) always include the dots.

Consonants

б beh

like boy (IPA: b)

в veh

like very (IPA: v)

г geh

like go (IPA: ɡ); in genitive (possessive) endings ого/его pronounced like в. E.g., "Dostoevsky's" = Достоевского (duh-stah-YEHV-skuh-vuh)

д deh

like do (IPA: d)

ж zheh

like measure (IPA: ʐ)

з zeh

like zoo (IPA: z)

й ee kratkoe ("short и")

like boy (IPA: j)

к kah

like keep (IPA: k)

л ell

like feel (IPA: ɫ)

м em

like seem (IPA: m)

н en

like noodle (IPA: n)

п peh

like spigot (IPA: p)

р err

heavily rolled as in Spanish rr in perro (IPA: r)

с ess

like seem (IPA: s)

т teh

like stop (IPA: t)

ф eff

like French (IPA: f)

х khah

like Chanukkah, Scottish loch, or German Bach (IPA: x)

ц tseh

like boots (IPA: t͡s)

ч cheh

like cheap (IPA: t͡ɕ)

ш sheh

like shot (IPA: ʂ)

щ scheh

ш, but harsher (IPA: ɕ). Don't worry about this too much, as you'll be understood in context. (Note that though щ is often transliterated as shch, it is not pronounced similar to "harsh choice"—there is no ch sound in this Russian consonant)

The letter sequence сч sounds like щ, and not like English question.

Be careful of letters such as В, Н, or Р which resemble a Latin letter but represent a different sound; they can be especially confusing for beginners.

When consonants are soft (they are either always soft, followed by a soft vowel, or have a soft sign), they become palatalized (IPA: ʲ). See the soft sign below for more details.

Signs

In the Middle Ages, these two characters (known as the yer) used to represent reduced vowels (pronounced like the unstressed vowels above), but now they merely indicate whether the preceding consonant is palatalized ("soft") or not ("hard").

ъ ’’

the hard sign (very rarely used since 1918) - used to indicate that the preceding consonant is not palatalized (in a position where it otherwise would be). It is mostly used after prefixes v- ("in") and s- ("out"). For example:

• съёмка (s-yom-kah) - making a film
• Сёмка (syom-kah) - familiar form for Simon
• въезд (v-yezd) - vehicular entrance (not vyezd).

ь ’

the soft sign - used to indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized (in a position where it otherwise would not be)

This means that the consonant is pronounced while sticking the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth while raising the middle of your tongue to your palate. You don't really need to worry about this - while there are pairs of words that differ only by palatalization (some examples follow), it can be very difficult for beginners and probably not worth the effort. If you are planning on being in a situation where you will be speaking Russian for a long period of time, it may be wise to practice this. As mentioned, palatalization also occurs before soft vowels.

• полька (POL'-kah) - a female Polish person (also, the dance)
• полка (POL-kah) - a shelf
• уголь (OO-gol') - coal
• угол (OO-gol) - corner
• каньон (ka-NYON) - canyon
• канон (ka-NON) - canon
• кров (KROHF) - roof, shelter
• кровь (KROHF') - blood

Stress

Although Russian is pronounced as it is spelled, stress is very unpredictable and stressing the wrong syllable can lead to misinterpretation; for that reason, almost every textbook and dictionary concerning the Russian language will put an accent mark (´) on the stressed syllable. It is, however, usually omitted in normal writing, so you will need to memorise the stressed syllable for each individual Russian word.