Russian language

How to be polite and show respect

Russian, like French, differentiates between a formal and an informal 'you'. So you should use the polite вы ('veeuy')  to people to whom you have just been introduced and switch to the informal ты ('teeuy') only after you have been invited to do so.

Every Russian has three names: their first name, their patronymic, and their family name, for example, Fyodor Mikhaylovic Dostoyevsky or Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. It is considered polite for Russians to address each other with both their first name and their patronymic. The patronymic is an extension of one's father's name, with -ovich placed on the end of it for a son and -ovna for a daughter. Learning to use someone's formal name looks impressive if you are just starting out with Russian, although using it correctly in the six different cases (subject, object, etc.) is a little more difficult.

Russian alphabet

Russian Alphabet	English Sound	Pronunciation Example
А а	a	As in the word army
А а	u	As in the word gun
Б б	b	As in the word bath
В в	v	As in the word very
Г г	g	As in the word gun
Д д	d	As in the word dog
Е е	e	As in the word send
Ж ж	s	As in the word pleasure
З з	z	As in the word zoo
И и	i	As in the word bit
Й й	y	As in the word youth
К к	k	As in the word kitchen
Л л	l	As in the word luck
Л л	l	As in the word leaf
М м	m	As in the word meet
Н н	n	As in the word not
О о	o	As in the word hot
П п	p	As in the word pot
Р р	r	As in the word robot
С с	s	As in the word sun
Т т	t	As in the word tall
У у	oo	As in the word room
Ф ф	f	As in the word fish
Х х	h	As in the word hat
Ц ц	tz	As in the word quartz
Ч ч	ch	As in the word church
Ш ш	sh	As in the word fish
Щ щ	sht	As in the word smashed
Ъ ъ	u	As in the word ugly
Ъ ъ	u	As in the word but
ь	э	As in the word pet
Э э	y	As in the word youth
Ю ю	you	As in the word you
Я я	ya	As in the word yarn

Helpful tips on which letters to trust and which are false friends from the BBC website are:

Аа, Ее, Кк, Мм, Оо, and Тт have the same sounds as in English, although you'll notice that the lower case k and t are just small versions of the upper case letters.

Вв is V, Нн is E, Рр is R, Сс is S, Уу is U, and Хх is H. These are completely different to what you expect. You'll also notice that the upper case У is a large version of the lower case у.

The letters that have no equivalents in English are ы (what the BBC describe as a 'grunted' kind of i, as in 'pill'), щ (a sharp double sh-sound -- it sounds like shCH to me, with the emphasis on the second part of the double sound), and й (y as in 'yes' -- although this seems obvious, I think perhaps it can crop up in parts of the word where we would usually think to pronounce it 'ee').

Contrary to what it says in the table above which comes from this website, the BBC also note that ъ (hard sign) and ь (soft sign) are also difficult in that the first one is never pronounced and second just softens the previous consonants. I think they mean that it softens the preceding consonants.

And lastly, here is a website which has a game where you can practise your typing with the Russian keyboard. Click on the first of the links on the page which gives you one letter at a time. Change your keyboard settings to Russian in your computer's control panel before you can play. If this becomes too easy go back the first page and click on the second link down and the game gives you more letters to type in the same time. And so on.

Russian phrases

For Wikitravel's phrasebook for Russian click here. I would like to note that I have spotted one inconsistency in the word order between this website's translation (1) of the phrase 'I can't speak Russian (well),' and that listed in Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian (2).

(1) Я не говорю по-русски (хорошо). (yah nee guh-vah-RYOO pah ROO-skee [khah-rah-SHOH]) 
(2) Я не (хорошо) говорю по-русски. (yah nee [khah-rah-SHOH] guh-vah-RYOO pah ROO-skee)