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DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Learn to read Russian in 15 minutes!
Russian is an Indo-european language, which means it is related to English
and other languages you may have already studied. Many words in Russian
will be recognizable to you as soon as you learn the alphabet, which is
easy.
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need Netscape 6 or higher or Safari.
Try the following:
Letters
you already know:
а о е к м т and с as in sail or circle
(never like "k") |
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| | Click here to see which words you know! |
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Letters
from Greek that you know from math class and student organizations:
| б as in phi beta kappa |
г as in gamma |
| д as in delta |
л as in lambda |
| п as in pi |
ф as in phi |
х as in ch
(like challah bread,
a clearing-your-throat "kh") |
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Ready for another reading test? Click here! |
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Check
out these "false friends,"
which look like English letters
but
designate a different sound in Russian:
в is a v as in Soviet (Совет)
н is an n as in Lenin (ленин)
р is an r (and you already know to use Greek п for p)
у is the vowel u pronounced long as in shoot
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There are a few more unfamiliar letters such as:
и for the vowel i, pronounced ee as in marine
й for the y sound in boy
я for ya as in YA-hoo |
| | Ready to see how much Russian you already know? Click here. |
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What language do people
speak from the borders of Eastern Europe
to Afghanistan to the borders
of China? русский
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Try it! It's easier and a lot more fun than you think! You can already read! | | |
Register for Russian 101 this fall in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. |
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