Russian cursive alphabet

Russian Pod 101

After having started learning the Russian language many students discover that Russian cursive alphabet looks different from its printed version.

Indeed, for some Russian letters (likely, for very little of them) the difference is such that you would not be able to recognize the letter if you were not familiar with it. Moreover, some letters take the look of other letters when become cursive or hand-written (if you are comparing them with the English alphabet).

Without further ado, below we offer you a comparative table that includes a few versions of printed Russian letters (with different fonts, so you can get used to them too) as well as hand-written and cursive Russian letters.

If you are looking for the Cyrillic cursive alphabet, the one below will do just fine. You can learn more about the differences and common things between Russian and Cyrillic alphabets here.

Click on any letter to open its detailed description, to listen to the audio, to get the pronunciation tips, and to be able to practice it with syllables and words.

If you want to practice hand-written Russian letters, you can do it with our PDF worksheets and some exercise here.

Printed v.1 Printed v.2 Printed v.3 Cursive Hand-written Transcription
А a А a А a А a А a [ a ]
Б б Б б Б б Б б Б б [ b ]
В в В в В в В в В в [ v ]
Г г Г г Г г Г г Г г [ g ]
Д д Д д Д д Д д Д д [ d ]
Е е Е е Е е Е е Е е [ ye ]
Ё ё Ё ё Ё ё Ё ё Ё ё [ yo ]
Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж Ж ж [ zh ]
З з З з З з З з З з [ z ]
И и И и И и И и И и [ ee ]
Й й Й й Й й Й й Й й [ ï ]
К к К к К к К к К к [ k ]
Л л Л л Л л Л л Л л [ l ]
М м М м М м М м М м [ m ]
Н н Н н Н н Н н Н н [ n ]
О о О о О о О о О о [ o ]
П п П п П п П п П п [ p ]
Р р Р р Р р Р р Р р [ r ]
С с С с С с С с С с [ s ]
Т т Т т Т т Т т Т т [ t ]
У у У у У у У у У у [ u ]
Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф Ф ф [ f ]
Х х Х х Х х Х х Х х [ kh ]
Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц Ц ц [ ts ]
Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч Ч ч [ ch ]
Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш Ш ш [ sh ]
Щ щ Щ щ Щ щ Щ щ Щ щ [ shch ]
ъ ъ ъ ъ ъ [ ]
ы ы ы ы ы [ y ]
ь ь ь ь ь [ ' ]
Э э Э э Э э Э э Э э [ e ]
Ю ю Ю ю Ю ю Ю ю Ю ю [ yu ]
Я я Я я Я я Я я Я я [ ya ]