Russian handwriting
Every Russian learner at some moment realizes that even if you have learned Russian alphabet by heart, it does not guarantee that you will be able to read hand-written Russian.
Russian handwriting can be quite confusing as many of the letters don’t look as their printed versions. Some of them look completely different from their English equivalents, others look the same but are used for completely different letters.
Below, you can find the list of Russian letters in printed and hand-written formats and some exercise to practice.
To practice hand-written Russian yourself, you can download our PDF worksheets:
– Full hand-written Russian alphabet
– Example sentences in Russian
or many others in our Practice section.
Handwritten Russian alphabet
Click on any letter to see its detailed description and practice it with syllables and words.
Printed | Hand-written v.1 | Hand-written v.2 | Transcription |
---|---|---|---|
А a | А a | ![]() | [ a ] |
Б б | Б б | ![]() | [ b ] |
В в | В в | ![]() | [ v ] |
Г г | Г г | ![]() | [ g ] |
Д д | Д д | ![]() | [ d ] |
Е е | Е е | ![]() | [ ye ] |
Ё ё | Ё ё | ![]() | [ yo ] |
Ж ж | Ж ж | ![]() | [ zh ] |
З з | З з | ![]() | [ z ] |
И и | И и | ![]() | [ ee ] |
Й й | Й й | ![]() | [ ï ] |
К к | К к | ![]() | [ k ] |
Л л | Л л | ![]() | [ l ] |
М м | М м | ![]() | [ m ] |
Н н | Н н | ![]() | [ n ] |
О о | О о | ![]() | [ o ] |
П п | П п | ![]() | [ p ] |
Р р | Р р | ![]() | [ r ] |
С с | С с | ![]() | [ s ] |
Т т | Т т | ![]() | [ t ] |
У у | У у | ![]() | [ u ] |
Ф ф | Ф ф | ![]() | [ f ] |
Х х | Х х | ![]() | [ kh ] |
Ц ц | Ц ц | ![]() | [ ts ] |
Ч ч | Ч ч | ![]() | [ ch ] |
Ш ш | Ш ш | ![]() | [ sh ] |
Щ щ | Щ щ | ![]() | [ shch ] |
ъ | ъ | ![]() | [ ] |
ы | ы | ![]() | [ y ] |
ь | ь | ![]() | [ ' ] |
Э э | Э э | ![]() | [ e ] |
Ю ю | Ю ю | ![]() | [ yu ] |
Я я | Я я | ![]() | [ ya ] |
You can download this table as PDF.
Practice to read Russian writing
To help you with the task of decoding Russian writings, we offer an exercise: below are some basic and useful Russian phrases that are written by hand with their printed versions and translation. Study them carefully trying to recognize each of the letters.

Привет, как дела?
Hi, how are you?
Доброе утро!
Good morning!
Какая сегодня хорошая погода!
What a nice weather today!
Сколько это стоит?
How much is it?
Вы не подскажете, где здесь туалет?
Can you tell me where the toilet is?
Где ближайший ресторан?
Where is the nearest restaurant?
Как пройти на улицу Маяковского?
How to get to Mayakovsky Street?
Как тебя зовут?
What’s your name?
Сколько времени? – Без пяти девять.
What time is it? – Five to nine.
Извините, вы выходите на следующей?
Excuse, are you getting off at the next stop?
Кто последний в очереди?
Who is the last in the queue?
Простите, что вы сказали?
Excuse me, what did you say?
You can download these sentences as PDF.
Hello from New Zealand,
We have two old photos from our Russian/ Estonian grandparents written on the back in Russian handwriting.
Could you show me how the English Dagmar and john would be written, so I can compare.
Thank you,
John
Hello John,
John in Russian is Джон. Dagmar is Дагмар. I did a test on Google Fonts for you to be able to see something that’s close to handwriting: link.
I hope it helps. If you have other questions, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
I am a premium member of Russian POD101 – but I can’t find the handwriting information when I am signed in and when I do a search.
I would like to be able to print out the sheets (if possible) of the handwritten letters for reference.
I found this page as I was searching for Russian handwriting and it came up in google…
Can you let me have the link please?
Hello Sally,
We have a worksheet with the whole Russian alphabet in the Practice section.
Is that what you are looking for? Or you would like to print something looking like the table on this page?
Yes, i would like to be able to print something like the table and the phrases on this page – do you have that available at all?
It would be really helpful 🙂
Hello Sally,
Why not, it’s a good idea to have them downloadable. We created PDFs and added the links under the table and the list of sentences respectively.
If you have other questions, don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
Thank you so much for these 🙂