Language Resources

HOW TO READ THE RUSSIAN LETTERS

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I. Russian letters which look and sound like their English counterparts: Listen

*Note: The stressed Е sounds like a combination of the vowels ye in yesterday. When Е is unstressed, it sounds like ee or ea as in street and meat.
The vowel O sounds as [o] (November) only under a stress. When O is unstressed it sounds as [a], but shorter than the stressed [a].

Note: Exercises for writing the Russian letters and words in cursive are located at the end of the phonetics exercises, pp. 75 – 89.

Exercise 1. Listen and repeat the following syllables:
Exercise 2, page 76.

*Note: In our work, we will use the term «syllable» to mean the part of a word, which contains one vowel and any number of consonants. In a Russian word, the number of vowels determines the number of syllables.

Vertical lines are used here to set off a Russian word that is divided into syllables, e.g.: МАМА |МА-МА|, АТОМ |А-ТОМ|.

Exercise 2. Listen and repeat the following words:
Exercise 2, page 76.

II. The group of Russian letters - "false friends" - which look like English letters but have a different sound value:  Listen

Exercise 3. Listen and repeat the following syllables:

Exercise 4. a) Read the following names and words: Listen

b) Divide the above words into syllables. Follow the model of Exercise 2.
c) Exercise 3, page 78.

Exercise 5. Read the names of the cities. Compare them with the English equivalents. Listen

Exercise 6. Read the following Russian names. Write them in the alphabetical order. Listen

Света   Анна   Роман   Вера   Антон   Нора   Тамара   Тома

Exercise 7. a) Listen and repeat the words below. b) Translate into English (use a dictionary if necessary).

метро    какао      ресторан   соус    театр     ром     сахар

III. Unfamiliar letters with familiar sounds Listen

Exercise 8. Read the following American and Russian names. Put them in Russian (Cyrillic) alphabetical order. Listen

Тим,  Лена,  Крис,  Дима,  Адам,  Грег,  Робин,  Роза,  Линда,  Борис,  Лариса,  Келли,  Павел,  Зинаида,  Патрик,  Сэм,  Вера,  Аарон [Арон]. 

Exercise 9. Read the following Russian names. Listen
      Writing Exercise 6, 7

Иван,  Нина,  Александр,  Владимир,  Екатерина,  Лиза,  Ирина,  Валентина,  Лариса,  Вадим,  Вера,  Александра,  Борис,  Валентин,  Римма.

Exercise 10. Read and write the following Russian words. Find English equivalents. Listen
      Writing Exercise 8

Exercise 11. a.) You overhear a conversation between НИНА and ЛИЗА. Listen to the conversation and repeat it.

b) Make up your dialogues according to the given model. Instead of the word МАМА use other Russian words, which you already know.

¹ Attention: БОГ (God) – [БОХ].

Exercise 12. Read the following Russian words. Listen
      Writing Exercise 9

Он (he),   брат (brother),   сестра (sister),   они (they),   мама,   папа (dad),  
друг [-к] (friend),   подруга (friend - female),   она (she).

Exercise 13. Read the following sentences. Do you understand who these people are? I guess you do. Listen

*Note: In Russian sentences which are equivalent to English "He is a student" the verb to be is omitted in the Present Tense.

Exercise 14. The next set of words is related to science. Can you guess their meaning? Listen

Exercise 15. These are parts of technical equipment. One word in the list doesn't belong there. Find it. Listen

Exercise 16. What are people talking about, if they are using the following words? Listen

САКСАФОН,  ОРКЕСТР,  ОПЕРА, ГИТАРА, КОМПАКТ-ДИСК, ПИАНИНО, ХЕВИ-МЕТАЛЛ-РОК, КОМПОЗИТОР, ПИАНИСТ, ГИТАРИСТ.

Exercise 17. You can see (and understand!) the following signs in any Russian town. Read them. Listen

БАР     институт     ГАСТРОНОМ     ТЕЛЕФОН     Кафе    

ЗООПАРК    КИОСК     Стадион     ИНТЕРНЕТ-КАФЕ    

казино     УНИВЕРСИТЕТ    сауна     АНТИКВАРИАТ

Exercise 18. This is a menu. Organize the items into 1) meals and 2) drinks. Listen

IV. The YO-, YU-, YA- group Listen
      Writing Exercise 10

*Note: In native Russian words, the initial letter Й does not occur. There are a few foreign words with the initial Й in Russian: ЙОГ [-К] (yogi), НЬЮ-ЙОРК (New York), ЙОГУРТ (yoghurt), ЙОД [-Т] (iodine).

V. The last group of letters and sounds: specific Russian letters and sounds
      Writing Exercise 11

      Writing Exercise 12.

Exercise 19. Read the words. Divide them into the following groups: города (cities), страны (countries), and континенты (continents). Listen

АМСТЕРДАМ,   МЕКСИКА,   АФРИКА,   СИДНЕЙ,  МАДРИД [-Т],   РОССИЯ,  БЕРЛИН, ВАШИНГТОН,  АВСТРАЛИЯ [АФС-],  МОСКВА,  БОСТОН,  БУХАРЕСТ,   СОФИЯ,  ГЕРМАНИЯ,  ЮЖНАЯ  АМЕРИКА,  КАНАДА,  БУЭНОС-АЙРОС.

Exercise 20. Read the words. Write out the words which designate люди (people). Listen

СТЮАРДЕССА,  СИМФОНИЯ,   БАСКЕТБОЛ,  ЭКСКУРСИЯ,  АКТЁР,  ЭКСПЕРИМЕНТ,  АЭРОПОРТ,   ХОККЕЙ,  МАРАФОН,  ЭКСПРЕСС,  БАЛЕРИНА,  АТМОСФЕРА,  ПОЭТ,  АКТРИСА,  ТРИЛЛЕР,  ЕРОЛЛЕЙБУС,  БЕСТСЕЛЛЕР,  СПОРТСМЕН.

Exercise 21. a) Read the personal pronouns; b) Then read the questions and answers. Listen

*Note: In Russian sentences that are equivalent to the English “Who are you? – I am a student” the verb to be is omitted in the Present Tense.

Exercise 22. Divide the following words into three groups: a) food, b) "world of work", c) signs on buildings Listen

Милиция [-цыя],  бар,  факс,  чизбургер,  банк,  музей,  пицца,  водка [-тк-],  информация [-цыя],  библиотека (library),  менеджер,  кофе-каппучино,  компьютер,  брокер,  цирк (circus) [цы-],  чай (tea) ,  «пицца Хат»,  хлеб [-п] (bread), банан,  ноутбук [ноу-],  Кремль (the Kremlin in Moscow), борщ (red-beet soup),  уик-энд [-т],  клуб [-п] «Метро».

Exercise 23. Read the names of the famous Russians. Can you work out who these people are? Listen

Exercise 24. Listen to the following words. Try to define a rhythmical model for each group of the words. Listen

Write down the rhythmical models, using the followings marks: dash (–) for a stressed syllable, and circle (°) for an unstressed syllable.

E.g.: ПАСПОРТ  [ПАС-ПАРТ]   – °.
БАЛЕРИНА  [БА-ЛИ-РИ-НА]   ° ° – °.

1/ мама, доллар, кофе, папа, бизнес.

2/ Техас, жираф, солдат, банан, спортсмен.

3/ фабрика, колокол (bell), вечером (in the evening), думают (they think), западный (western).

4/ погода (weather), горилла, минута, работа (work), хороший (good).

5/ инженер, стадион, витамин, динозавр, Мичиган.

6/ телефон, шоколад [-т], гитарист, программист, мармелад.

7/ грамматика, учебники (textbooks), показывать (to show), красавица (beautiful woman), приехали (they arrived).

For fun and knowledge

Vladimir Nabokov about the colors of the letters of the Cyrillic and Latin Alphabets

On "Colored hearing" of the Russian letters from Vladimir Nabokov, Drugie berega

The group of blackish-brown:
А - dense, without a Gallic luster;
Р - rather even (compared to the ragged [Latin] R)
Г - firmly rubbery
Ж - as unlike the French "j" as dark chocolate is unlike milk chocolate
Я - a polished dark brown

The whitish group:
Л - a rather bland diet of vermicelli
Н - a bland diet of kasha from Smolensk
О - almond milk
Х - a dry bread roll
Э - Swedish bread

Muddy transitional tones:
Ч – enema-like
Ш – downy gray
Щ – downy gray with a yellow tint

The red group:
Б – cherry-brick (more intense than the [Latin] B)
М – rosy-flannel
В – flesh pink (a touch yellowier than the [Latin] V)

The yellow group:
Е – orange
Ё – ochre
Д – straw colored
И – pale yellow
У – golden
Ю – brassy

The green group:
П – guache green
Ф – dusty alder
Т – pastel green
(all of these are dryer than their Latin equivalents)

The blue and violet group:
Ц – tin colored
С – watery blue
К – huckleberry
З – brilliantly lilac

“Such is my alphabet rainbow (ВЕЁПСКЗ).”

By the way, there is a Russian children's saying about how to memorize the order of the colors of the rainbow. Do you have something similar in English?

Каждый охотник желает знать, где сидит фазан. - Each hunter wants to know where a pheasant is sitting (hiding).

К - красный - red
О - оранжевый - orange
Ж – жёлтый – yellow
З – зелёный – green
Г– голубой – light-blue
С – синий – dark-blue
Ф – фиолетовый – purple, violet

The Russian Sound System: Pronunciation Guide

The Russian Department at Reed College © 2004 Anna Yatsenko

Last updated: 29 August 2016.