Tag Archives: Russian alphabet
Твёрдый знак (hard sign): a case study in Russian language reforms Posted by bota on Jul 2, 2020
Last month we looked at мягкий знак (soft sign) and the rules that govern its proper use. In this blog, let’s explore the other unusual letter of the Russian alphabet: твёрдый знак (hard sign). Твёрдый знак “ъ” is the 28th letter of the Russian alphabet and similar to the soft sign, it doesn’t carry its…
Мягкий знак “Ь” (soft sign) or the Charlie Chaplin of the Russian alphabet Posted by bota on Jun 22, 2020
What can the 30th letter of the Russian alphabet have in common with the icon of the silent film industry? Let’s find out together. Many beginner Russian learners find the soft sign (мя́гкий знак) to be one of the most intriguing letters of the Russian alphabet because it doesn’t have its own phonetic meaning but…
Why You Should Learn to Read Russian Vowels Posted by Maria on Feb 7, 2019
The Russian alphabet is one of the first challenges a prospective student runs into. We have posted some advice for learning the alphabet on this blog, but if you don’t know where to start, start with the vowels. Learning to read and pronounce Russian vowels is a manageable task that has many benefits. Only 10…
Conquer the Backwards R — Learn to Read Russian (Part II) Posted by Maria on Nov 28, 2016
Last time, we looked at some letters of the Russian alphabet that either look and sound or just sound like their Latin counterparts. This time, we will look at letters that have similar sounds to other languages and, finally, some unique letters. Letters That Sound But Don’t Look Like Latin Letters A lot of these…
Breaking News – One Fewer Letter Posted by yelena on Apr 1, 2012
I don’t post on this blog on weekends, unless something happens that is из ряда вон выходящее (out of the ordinary). Today is just such a day. As you know, the Russian alphabet has 33 letters. Or rather, it had 33 letters until today when the number was reduced by 1 letter. Can you guess…
Are There Too Many Letters in Russian Alphabet? Posted by yelena on Sep 27, 2010
What’s this, you ask? Well, this is Russian alphabet. Or rather, this was the old Russian alphabet used in times of Peter the Great. Letters in blue have been discarded by 1800. Letters in red were killed off or exiled in 1918. The remaining 33 letters form the present-day Russian alphabet. When I was little…