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The Cyrillic Alphabet

33 letters; hard and soft consonants

Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet

33 letters; some look familiar but sound different.

📊 Some letters
Cyrillic Sound Note
в v looks like B
н n looks like H
р r looks like P
п p
ж zh as in 'measure'
💬 Examples
привет
privet
hi
📝 р = 'r', н = 'n', в = 'v'
спасибо
spasibo
thank you
📝 с = 's', п = 'p'
Some letters are 'false friends'

They look Latin but sound different.

💬 Examples
Россия
Rossiya
Russia
📝 с = 's', not 'c'; и = 'ee'
ресторан
restoran
restaurant
📝 р = 'r', not 'p'
Consonants can be hard or soft

The soft sign ь and certain vowels soften them.

💬 Examples
мать
mat'
mother
📝 ь = soft sign (softens т)
брат
brat
brother
📝 Hard final т (no soft sign)