Start with the alphabet, not with grammar.

    Learn Russian

    After this page you will be able to read Cyrillic signs and say your first twenty phrases.

    Start with the alphabet — around ten minutes, and most street signs stop being noise. This path runs from Cyrillic to the phrases people actually use: reading practice, a transliterator, a keyboard, your own name in Russian. All free, no account. After that, the tools work as a phrasebook you can keep coming back to.

    The path

    1. 01The alphabet in ten minutesMost letters are already familiar; learn the few that are not.
    2. 02Your first phrasesWhat to say at a counter, in a taxi, in a shop.
    3. 03Transliterate anythingTurn Cyrillic into letters you can already pronounce.
    4. 04Type in CyrillicSearch and message without installing a keyboard.
    5. 05Your name in RussianThe first word most learners want to write.
    6. 06The language hubWhere to go after the alphabet.

    What people get wrong here

    Learn the alphabet
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