Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels. Part 1. The Easiest

Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels.

Part 1. The Easiest

Dear readers,

I know how painstaking learning the Russian alphabet / letters can be. That's why I have divided this material in several parts for you to gain this crucial knowledge ASAP and with minimum stress and effort.

I would also like to point out right from the very beginning, there are sites and other resources with provide so called “pronunciation” with Latin characters below. I strongly advice you against applying this technique because:

1. Russians use ONLY Cyrillic characters so you will be unable to read without knowing them. 

2. Russian language has sounds which don't exist in European languages which are indicated with special letters.

3. There is a logical connection between Russian alphabet and Russian pronunciation. Little effort at the very beginning will save you from so much stress afterwards.

In the “Struggling with the Cyrillic Characters. Russian Vowels” section you will learn 10 Russian vowel letters in three posts. 4 letters in this one, 4 - in the next one and 2 - in the last one. 15-20 minutes for each post and you are done with this issue!

So, let's begin Part 1. The easiest!

- There are two letters which look the same as in the Latin alphabet and are pronounced in the same way. These are А а and O o.

А а like in cut or nut. O o like in hot and spot. Both perhaps a bit longer.

- Then there is the letter У у. It looks more or less the same as Y y, but it is pronounced as “u” like in the words spoon or put.

Note! Russian doesn't have long and short vowels like English. So these sounds are shorter than English long vowels and longer than English short vowels.

And the last letter is Э э. It is like a reverted Euro currency sign but with only one horizontal bar. Or a reverted c with a horizontal bar. This is the Russian e. It is pronounced a bit harder than the English e.

So basically, that's it! Let's sum it up and practice a little!

А а О о У у Э э

Please, note all these vowels are hard-indicating. That's is going to be important because Russian language has got hard and soft consonants. So the consonants preceding these vowels are going to be hard.

Now, listen to these vowels in words and repeat! The stressed syllables are underlined.

А а О о У у Э э

Мама (mom), папа (dad), брат (brother), сестра (sister)

Он (he), дом (house), ложка (spoon), полка (shelf)

Суп (spoon), лук (onion), друг (friend, a male friend), подруга (friend, a female friend)

Это (it or this), этот (this, Masculine), этаж (storey or floor of a house), экзамен (exam)

And that's it! Thank you :-) Спасибо!

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