1 Travel Russia

The Russian Language is fascinating and challenging to learn. The first thing you will notice is that Russian is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. This means their letters and the pronunciations will be different than in the English language-which uses the Roman alphabet. For example the letters C-P-B are completely different in Russian. In fact they would be pronounced S-R-V. The Cyrillic alphabet is named after St. Cyril, a missionary from Byzantium. It was invented sometime during the 10th century AD, possibly by St. Kliment of Ohrid, to write the Old Church Slavonic language. The Cyrillic alphabet achieved its current form in 1708 during the reign of Peter the Great. Four letters were eliminated from the alphabet in a 1917/18 reform. The Cyrillic alphabet has been adapted to write over 50 different languages, mainly in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe

It’s not that hard once you learn the letters. But keep in mind, you are translating both letters and the word, which is why it takes a while to master Russian. Don’t worry-lots of people have done it and you can too!

While many Russians have been taught some English, there are few that speak it on a regular basis in their home country. Americans are slightly more difficult to understand because their accent is different than the British accent–used by most English teachers in Russian schools. This makes it difficult to be understood even by someone who speaks English well.

If you are planning a trip to Russia or another country in the FSU, you will benefit greatly by learning survival words and general phrases. You don’t have to know everything fluently, just a few phrases, and key words are usually enough. Obviously the more you know the more you can get to know the people around you.

The Russian Alphabet

Russian letter	Letter’s name   in Russian	Pronounced   as	Transliteration	Vowel
	“ah”	a in car	a	x
	“beh”	b in bit	b	-
	“veh”	v in vine	v	-
	“geh”	g in go	g	-
	“deh”	d in do	d	-
	“yeh”	ye in yet	ye or e	x
	“yo”	yo in yolk	yo	x
	“zheh”	s in pleasure	zh	-
	“zeh”	z in zoo	z	-
	“ee”	ee in see	i	x
	“ee kratkoyeh”  “short ee”	y in boy	i or y or  j	-
	“kah”	k in kitten	k	-
	“ehl”	l in lamp	l	-
	“ehm”	m in map	m	-
	“ehn”	n in not	n	-
	“oh”	o in folk	o	x
	“peh”	p in pet	p	-
	“ehr”	r in roll2	r	-
	“ehs”	s in see	s	-
	“teh”	t in tip	t	-
	“oo”	oo in boot	u	x
	“ehf”	f in face	f	-
	“khah”	h in house3	kh or h	-
	“tseh”	ts in sits	ts	-
	“cheh”	ch in chip	ch	-
	“shah”	sh in shut	sh	-
	“schyah”	sh in sheep	sch	-
	“tvyordiy znahk”  “hard sign”	4	‘	-
	“i”	i in ill	y	x
	“myagkeey znahk”  “soft sign”	5	‘	-
	“eh”	e in met	e	x
	“yoo”	u in use	yu	x
	“yah”	ya in yard	ya	x