Russian alphabet to English
Russian alphabet to English is one of the most popular online searches related to the Russian language.
If you were looking for that too, we prepared a table for you where every letter of the Russian alphabet is given its corresponding sound in English.
Due to the fact that not all the Russian letters have their corresponding sounds (some Russian sounds simple do not exist in English), the table also includes additional explanations and actual sounds of the Russian letters (audio files).
Click on any letter to learn more about how to pronounce it and to practice it in syllables and words.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments!
| Russian letter | Transcription | Pronunciation | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| А a | [ a ] | like a in far | |
| Б б | [ b ] | like b in box | |
| В в | [ v ] | like v in voice | |
| Г г | [ g ] | like g in goat | |
| Д д | [ d ] | like English d | |
| Е е | [ ye ] | like ye in yes | |
| Ё ё | [ yo ] | like yo in yogurt | |
| Ж ж | [ zh ] | like s in pleasure | |
| З з | [ z ] | like z in zoo | |
| И и | [ ee ] | like ee in free | |
| Й й | [ ï ] | like y in yoga | |
| К к | [ k ] | like c in call or k in key | |
| Л л | [ l ] | like l in like | |
| М м | [ m ] | exactly like English m | |
| Н н | [ n ] | like n in no | |
| О о | [ o ] | like o in not | |
| П п | [ p ] | like p in part | |
| Р р | [ r ] | like r in rock-n-roll | |
| С с | [ s ] | like s in stop | |
| Т т | [ t ] | like English t | |
| У у | [ u ] | like oo in food | |
| Ф ф | [ f ] | like f in fly | |
| Х х | [ kh ] | like h in hat | |
| Ц ц | [ ts ] | like ts in its | |
| Ч ч | [ ch ] | like ch in cheese | |
| Ш ш | [ sh ] | like sh in shampoo | |
| Щ щ | [ shch ] | like ch and sh together | |
| ъ | [ ] | does not have its own sound | |
| ы | [ y ] | between oo and ee | |
| ь | [ ' ] | does not have its own sound | |
| Э э | [ e ] | like e in end | |
| Ю ю | [ yu ] | like you in you | |
| Я я | [ ya ] | like yu in yummy |
I understand the sounds, but what are the actual *names* of the letters, that you use when you are talking about them?
Hello Bruce,
Click on any letter in the table to open a page dedicated to it. There you can find the actual names (as in the alphabet) together with sound and pronunciation rules, as well as some example to practice with.
Prevyet lots of lubulu is INDIA this is so use full to learn Russian language specbaa..
Alphabet Quiz. First part works well Then the sound drops even for letters that aren’t silent.
Hello Nina,
Thanks for your comment. It works well on our side but might not work on other systems and browsers. For example, if you are on iPad, there is a problem with playing the audio that we were not able to solve so far.
Please try to clear your browser cache and if it’s still not working, let us know and we can try to debug it with you.
Thank you.
How is it that the “Е” has 3 transliterations: ye, je, e (I see them on Wikipedia, “Russian alphabet”)? When or where do we read or pronounce it as ye or je or e?
Hi Sendi,
Thanks for your questions and sorry for replying so late. The notification system of the site stopped working and I had no idea about new comments.
The actual sound is always the same. For an English speaker, I think, the closest is yo (like in “yo man”). It ё follows a consonant, the consonant gets softened. You can check the exact pronunciation here: https://russianalphabeteasy.com/russian-letters/yo/
The translatiration depends on who is doing it. Different languages have different combinaions of letters to describe a sound, sometimes a few.
i dont’t have question thank you
How do we know what is the pronounciation of a letter when its followed by ъ ?
Hi МИКАЛ,
If a letter (consonant) is followed by Ъ it simply sounds as it is regardless of the following vowel which otherwise could make it sound soft. You can see and hear some examples here: https://russianalphabeteasy.com/russian-letters/hard-sign/