Week 1, Lesson 1, Monday

Read your first Russian words

Twelve Russian letters look like English ones: five sound the way you expect, seven are false friends. Seven more are new shapes with sounds you already know.

In this lessonabout 70 minutes

New words15

Focus12 look-alike letters, 7 new shapes

1Recap 5 minutes

No previous lesson yet, so three guesses instead. A wrong guess now still helps the lesson stick.

2Goal 1 minute

I can read 19 letters and words made from them.

3The lesson 20 minutes

Twelve letters that look like English

Russian is written in Cyrillic, the alphabet shared with Ukrainian, Serbian and Bulgarian. Twelve of its letters look like Latin ones. Five really do sound the same; seven are false friends that look familiar but sound different, and they cause most beginner mistakes. Read the decoder first, then the table.

Letter	Sound	Think of
Same as English
А а	[a]	father; Spanish casa
К к	[k]	kit
М м	[m]	map
О о	[o]	more, when stressed
Т т	[t]	top
False friends
В в	[v]	van, never b
Е е	[ye]	yes
Н н	[n]	no
Р р	[r]	Spanish caro: a tapped r
С с	[s]	see
У у	[u]	boot; Spanish tú
Х х	[kh]	Spanish jota

Decode a word letter by letter. Blue tiles sound as in English; cranberry-edged tiles are false friends.

Seven new shapes, familiar sounds

Seven more letters are new shapes, but their sounds are ones you already make in Spanish and English. Once you know them, you can read most short words.

Letter	Sound	Think of
Б б	[b]	banana
Г г	[g]	go; Spanish gato
Д д	[d]	dog
З з	[z]	zoo
Л л	[l]	lamp
П п	[p]	pen
Ф ф	[f]	fun

Two rules show up already: an unstressed о sounds like a, and Д at the very end sounds like t.

Your Spanish helps

Р is the tapped r of caro and Х is the j of jota: two sounds English speakers struggle with, free for you. The one to watch is В: Spanish blends b and v, Russian never does.

How to read the brackets

Reading the brackets. They show how a word sounds. Capitals mark the stressed syllable and ' a soft consonant. Unstressed о sounds like a, and unstressed е like i, so метро́ is [mi-TRO]. A voiced consonant at the very end turns voiceless: го́род ends in [t], флаг in [k].

Five false friends in one word. Unstressed е and о shift: [ri-sta-RAN].

Week 1 on one plate: all 33 Cyrillic letters in two lessons. Lesson 1, Monday: same as English А a, К k, М m, О o, Т t; false friends В v, Е ye, Н n, Р r, С s, У u, Х kh; new shapes with familiar sounds Б b, Г g, Д d, З z, Л l, П p, Ф f. Lesson 2, Thursday: hushing sounds Ж zh, Ц ts, Ч ch, Ш sh, Щ shch; vowels and Й: Э e, Ю yu, Я ya, Ё yo, И i, Й y; Ъ hard sign, Ь soft sign, Ы deep i; the stress mark in спасибо means say it louder and longer. — Week 1 on one plate. This lesson is band L1.

4Listen and say 5 minutes

Sound of the lesson: В is always a v

Spanish blends b and v; Russian keeps them apart. For в, touch your top teeth to your lower lip.

вино́ [vi-NO] Hear it on Forvo (opens in a new tab)
Москва́ [mask-VA] Hear it on Forvo (opens in a new tab)

Listen to the textbook

The book's own recordings for this topic, free on the publisher's site. Listen once for the gist, then again with the book open.

Phonetics course (opens in a new tab)

5Phrases and words 5 minutes

Phrases to learn whole

Learn each one as a single unit, the way you would learn a word. They come back in your Daily 10.

Приве́т!Hi!
Спаси́бо!Thank you!
Да.Yes.
Нет.No.

Words to read aloud

Read each one aloud, then open it to check.

ма́ма

[MA-ma] mum