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.

    Moscow city lights at night in late autumn. Photo: Vlad Lario.
    Moscow city lights at night in late autumn

    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.

    Optional, once you are done

    What people get wrong here

    Learn the alphabet