Is Russian alphabet difficult?

Question

It may seem like it. It has 33 letters and some sounds don't exist in English.

And the good news... You will be able to read in Russian after just one lesson.

Impressive, ha ;)

Answer 1

In my opinion to learn Russian alphabet is not difficult with right Tutor. Everything is possible and, if you really want learn a foreign language, you will learn for sure, otherwise you will look for excuses, like Russian alphabet is difficult:) You can do it! Good luck!

Answer 2

I would say YES, Russian alphabet is difficult for English speakers for the following reasons:

1. printed version of the alphabet and handwriting can look very different from each other
2. some letters, such as H, C, P, B can be confusing, as they look the same but sounds different in English language
3. Russian alphabet includes silent letters Ь and Ъ, and a vowel Ы, which are very unusual for English speakers

However, learning a language from a different family is never easy.

Answer 3

Hi, to be precise, good news is that among those 33 Cyrillic letters, 5 letters sound and look like English letters:

"A, К, М, О, Т"

The rest of the Russian alphabet just needs to be memorized. For English speakers often while reading, the confusing letters are the letters that look like English, but have different sounds, those Russian letters are:

"В [v], Е [ye], Н [n], Р [r], С [s], У [oo], Х [kh]"

The final 21 letters of Russian alphabet neither look nor sound English:

"Б [b], Г [g], Д [d], Ё [yo], Ж [zh], З [z], И [ee], Й [y] like in "boy", Л [l], П [p], Ф [f], Ц [ts], Ч [ch], Ш [sh], Щ [shch], Ы [i] like in "ill", Э [e] "let", Ю "yu", Я ya, Ь [soft sign], Ъ [hard sign]"

All in all - 10 vowels, 21 consonants and 2 signs. Above are capital letters only with transcription, the italic letters however, is a different story.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Though it may seem daunting, the key here, as with any new area of study or undertaking, is the dedication of time and repetition. With a well compiled program, that is in accordance with your goals, you could learn the alphabet and be reading on a very limited level in relatively little time. The question is how much time and effort are you willing to put in as a student? If you are prepared to embrace the challenge, you will be surprised at how quickly you can force the brain to internalize a new alphabet and language. Please reach out if i can be of further assistance in your language journey!

Answer 5

True!

Some letters are similar but some look the same but sound completely different 😄

So can be a little challenging but with paying attention it's a fun journey.

Answer 6

Honestly, the Russian alphabet isn't that hard, it's just memorization. There are plenty of tricks to learning the alphabet - some of the letters are the same as in English, some of them are just like in the Greek alphabet and some seem similar, but sound different. You will be able to sound out words for sure after you have learned the alphabet, but reading Russian, well, that's a longer term goal! Good luck!