The Russian Alphabet PDF: Cyrillic Letters & Beginner Phrases

The Russian alphabet has 33 letters, but English learners discover something surprising on day one: about a third of the letters look and sound exactly like English (А, К, М, О, Т — same letters, same sounds). Another third look strange but sound familiar (Р is a rolled “r”, Н is “n”, В is “v”). Only the last group — Ы, Й, Ъ, Ь, Ц, Щ, Ж — is genuinely new.

This PDF walks through all 33 letters in three groups:

• True friends — letters that look and sound like English equivalents.
• False friends — letters that look like English but sound completely different (Р = R, not P; Н = N, not H; С = S, not C).
• New shapes — uniquely Russian letters with no English equivalent (Ы, Ж, Щ, Ц, Й).

How to use it

Don’t try to memorize the alphabet in one sitting. Read the PDF once to understand the categories, then practice by trying to decode street signs, names, and short Russian words you see online. Most English speakers can read basic Russian text within 2–3 days of focused practice.

After the alphabet section, the PDF includes 40+ beginner phrases — greetings, polite expressions, asking for directions — all written in Cyrillic with stress marks and approximate English pronunciation.