· 3 min read

Learn the Cyrillic Alphabet: 31 Russian Letters, Look-Alike Traps and Italic Forms

Learn the Russian Cyrillic alphabet with 31 real flashcards: false-friend letters, hard and soft signs, italic shapes, plus the two letters you must add.

Cyrillic letters Zhe and Shcha with a fountain pen and onion dome among floating flashcards

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The Cyrillic alphabet takes about a weekend to learn, and Cyrillic Alphabet & Cursive (deck code CM0415) covers most of it in 31 cards. Each card shows a capital letter with its Latin hint on the front. The back gives the letter's name, its English sound and, for about ten letters, a note on the italic or Greek origin.

Study this deck: Cyrillic Alphabet & Cursive

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А

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What the cards actually say

FrontBack (from the deck)
НEn: looks like Latin H but pronounced like the n in no
РEr: looks like Latin P but pronounced like the r in run
ЖZhe: like the s in measure or French j
ХKha: like ch in Scottish loch; from Greek Chi
ЩShcha: like shch in fresh cheese
ЫYery: like the i in bit but further back; once a ligature of Ъ + І
ЬSoft sign: palatalizes the preceding consonant, no vowel sound
ДDe: the italic form can resemble Latin g

Letters covered: А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э. The deck also covers the Greek roots of Ф (Phi), Х (Chi) and А (Alpha), Ё often written as Е, the short I in boy, the hard sign as a separator, and the difference between Э and Е.

Fix these before you start

  • Add Ю and Я. Russian has 33 letters, and the deck stops at Э. Write two cards: Ю = yu as in you, Я = ya as in yard. Together with Е and Ё, they are the four "y-vowels" that soften the consonant before them.
  • Card 1 (А) has no sound on its back. Add: a as in father.
  • Card 17 is wrong about the italic. In italics, п looks like Latin n, and и is the one that looks like u. Make a two-card set for this pair, because it is the most common misreading in printed Russian. Italic г looks more like a backwards s than an i.
  • The word "Cursive" in the title promises more than the deck has: only about ten backs mention italic shapes, and none show joined handwriting. If you need to read handwriting, add cards for т written like m and ш written like a w, both with the stroke above or below the line that tells them apart.

How to learn Cyrillic fast

Sort, don't shuffle, on day one. Split the 33 letters into three piles:

  1. True friends: А К М О Т.
  2. False friends: В Н Р С У Х. They look Latin but read v, n, r, s, u, kh.
  3. New shapes: everything else.

Pile 2 causes most beginner mistakes, so review it every session until you read РЕСТОРАН as restoran without thinking.

Read words, not letters, by day three. After about 20 letters, add one real word per card: ВОДКА, МЕТРО, БОРЩ. Ъ and Ь never stand alone, so learn them in pairs: брат/брать (brother / to take), and the hard sign in подъезд.

For the next step, the Russian A1 Essentials article lets you use the alphabet on 260 everyday words.

Find CM0415 – Cyrillic Alphabet & Cursive in the library at flip-it.app.

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