Transliteration of Russian
A correspondence table between the Russian script and Latin letters: 33 letters, with names and sounds. The rendering is practical — it exists so you can read aloud and be understood, not to meet a scholarly standard.
Russian character → Latin
| Character | Name | In Latin | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| А а | a | a as in "father" | A pure open a as in "father", with no glide into "ay" |
| Б б | be | b as in "book" | An ordinary b as in "book", said without a puff of air |
| В в | ve | v as in "van" | A light v as in "van": the top teeth touch the lower lip, but the lips never close all the way |
| Г г | ge | g as in "go" | A plain hard g as in "go", always hard, never a j |
| Д д | de | d as in "door" | A d with the tongue against the upper teeth, closer to the teeth than the English one |
| Е е | ye | e as in "bet", or ye as in "yet" | At the start of a word and after a vowel it is ye as in "yes": yest means "there is". After a consonant it is plain e as in "bet", and the consonant softens |
| Ё ё | yo | yo as in "yolk" | Always stressed yo as in "yolk": myod (honey) sounds like "myot" |
| Ж ж | zhe | zh as in "measure" | The s of "measure" or the z of "azure", said with a buzz |
| З з | ze | z as in "zoo" | An ordinary z as in "zoo" |
| И и | i | ee as in "see" | The pure ee of "see". After a consonant it softens that consonant: mir is said with a soft m |
| Й й | yot | y as in "yes" | The y of "yes" or "boy": a short glide that never forms a syllable of its own |
| К к | ka | k as in "kite" | An ordinary k as in "kite", without a puff of air |
| Л л | el | l as in "lamp" | An l between the English light and dark ones: the tongue tip touches the teeth |
| М м | em | m as in "map" | An ordinary m as in "map" |
| Н н | en | n as in "no" | An ordinary n as in "no" |
| О о | o | o as in "more" | A round o under stress. Unstressed, it shrinks almost to a: moloko sounds "malako" |
| П п | pe | p as in "pen" | A plain p as in "pen", said without a puff of air |
| Р р | er | a rolled r | A rolled r: the tongue tip flutters against the ridge behind the upper teeth. Never the English r |
| С с | es | s as in "sun" | Always the s of "sun", never z and never k, whatever letter follows |
| Т т | te | t as in "top" | A t with the tongue against the upper teeth, said without a puff of air |
| У у | u | oo as in "food" | A pure oo as in "food" |
| Ф ф | ef | f as in "fun" | An ordinary f; native words with it are few, most came in as loans |
| Х х | kha | ch as in Scottish "loch" | The ch of Scottish "loch": air rasps at the back of the mouth, with no voice in it |
| Ц ц | tse | ts as in "cats" | The ts of "cats", said as one sound, not "t-s" |
| Ч ч | che | ch as in "church" | The ch of "church", always soft, with the middle of the tongue raised |
| Ш ш | sha | sh as in "ship" | The sh of "ship", held hard: no smile, lips pushed forward |
| Щ щ | shcha | a long soft sh | One long soft sh, stretched over half a syllable, with the middle of the tongue raised — not "shch" |
| Ъ ъ | hard sign | no sound, separates | No sound of its own. It stands between a prefix and the root before the iotated letters and keeps the two apart |
| Ы ы | y | i pulled back, no English twin | Like the i of "bit" but with the tongue pulled far back: no English vowel sits there. Say "ee" and slide the tongue back until the sound darkens |
| Ь ь | soft sign | no sound, softens | No sound of its own. It softens the consonant before it: the middle of the tongue rises toward the roof of the mouth, as if about to say y |
| Э э | e | e as in "bet", never ye | A plain e as in "bet", with no y in front of it — the sound the letter ye only has after a consonant |
| Ю ю | yu | yoo as in "you" | A y and oo in one letter, like the word "you". After a consonant it softens it, and you hear just the oo |
| Я я | ya | ya as in "yard" | A y and a in one letter, as in "yard". After a consonant it softens it, and you hear just the a |
How practical transliteration differs from the scholarly kind
Any script has several Latin renderings, and they solve different problems. The scholarly one (ISO, GOST) is reversible: the original spelling can be restored character for character — which is why it is full of marks that are not on any keyboard and that nobody ever reads aloud correctly.
The practical one solves the reverse problem: a person reads it aloud and is understood. That is what the table above uses, and that is what our courses use.
What to watch out for
Five letters you get for free. а, к, м, о, т look like Latin and sound like it. The only thing to remember: unstressed о fades toward a, so молоко is said "malako".
Six impostors: familiar shape, foreign sound. The most dangerous group: the eye recognizes the letter and reads it wrong. в is v, not B; н is n, not H; р is a rolled r, not P.
с is always s, even before e and i. у is the vowel oo, not a consonant. х is the ch of Scottish "loch" — the slot where borrowed words keep their h.
Twenty new letters. Clean learning material, best taken in pairs: б against п, д against т, ж against ш — voiced against voiceless, same mouth shape.
The iotated е, ё, ю, я write y plus a vowel in one sign, and after a consonant they soften it.
Two signs without a sound. ъ and ь make no sound at all. The first is rare (podyezd), the second is daily bread: sol, den, semya. The whole difference between brat (a brother) and brat (to take) is the soft sign.
Frequently asked
How to write Russian text in Latin letters?
Using the table above, character by character. The practical rendering records sound, not spelling, so the original text cannot always be restored from it backwards.
Why do transliterations differ across sources?
Because they solve different problems: the scholarly one is reversible and precise, the practical one is readable, the passport one is fixed by the country's rules. They are not required to agree.