The Cyrillic alphabet may seem scary to those who just start to learn Russian. It seems quite different from the Latin one many European languages use. But is it really that scary and that different? And is it essential to learn the alphabet? And what tips can help you to learn it faster? Let’s find out in today’s article.
33 letters
The Cyrillic alphabet consists of 33 letters. A bit more than the Latin alphabet has, but all these letters are essential to correctly represent Russian phonetics, that we’ve already talked a little bit about in this article. Some of the letters may seem familiar to you, and it is not a pure coincidence – the Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, the same is true for the Latin one.
Is it essential to learn the alphabet
On the one hand, the answer seems pretty obvious. Yes of course! How can you study the language without understanding its script. But in reality the situation is a bit more complicated. If you just need a couple of phrases to use during your trip to a Russian-speaking country, you may not really need to learn the alphabet. Also, if you are more into Russian culture, and just curious about the language of the country of your interest, you may also don’t need to dive into Russian written language.
However, of course, if you are going to study language deeply, you cannot skip that part, where you don’t just get acquaint with the alphabet, but know it by heart and can read freely.
Where to start?
First of all, don’t be that scared. The alphabet is just the beginning of the journey and you there is no reason to give up that easily. Here three baby steps for you to have an idea, where to start:
- Start with the identical lessons. There are some letters in Russia, that look just like English ones. And not just look, but also sound. For example, M for Maria, K for Konstantin, A for Anna.
- Check the letters, that look familiar, but represent a different sound. By the way, Russian students use this method a lot while learning English. For example, B sounds like V, C is for sound S, H is for N.
- Try to memorize the letters that look unfamiliar through words you already know. Ф is sound you have in physics, Ю sounds just like You, Я is very close to young.
And don’t forget that the key to success in language learning is practice, practice, and more practice. So the more you read and write in Russian, the faster you will memorize the alphabet.
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