Russian Pod 101

Russian letter: И и

New look, familiar sound Order in the alphabet: 10

To memorize the Russian letter И, think about it as the flipped English N.

Here is a mnemonic that can help: Russian И by itself means and, and N in English sometimes serves as a shortened version of and (like in rock-n-roll).

Pay attention that in hand writing, the И looks more like the English U.

Writing

Printed v.1
И и
Printed v.2
И и
Printed v.3
И и
Cursive
И и
Hand-written
И и

Pronunciation

As in the alphabet
Actual sound
Transcription
[ ee ]
How to pronounce
like ee in free
Pronunciation tips

When И follows a consonant, the consonant becomes soft.

Practice with syllables

  • ми
  • ти
  • си
  • ки

Words with this letter

Audio
With stress marks
кит
Cursive / Hand-written
кит
кит
Transcription / Translation
[ keet ]
whale
Pronunciation tips
Audio
With stress marks
си́то
Cursive / Hand-written
сито
сито
Transcription / Translation
[ sée-ta ]
sieve
Pronunciation tips

Unstressed О sounds like А.

Practice with a worksheet

Practice the hand-written Russian letter И as well as the syllables and words listed above, with this worksheet: download the worksheet.