Problem
How do I read the Russian alphabet? Especially those station names.
Answer
The station names are the easiest and help you to remember letters. But I've finally devised a system for remembering each letter.
Russian Made Easy
Here's the whole alphabet in a neat box copied from Wikipedia. Thirty-three letters are in the box and several of them look the same as the Latin alphabet. Other have little dots or tags to help you remember how they are similar to the English sounds but not quite the same. The order of the letters is the same as the Latin and Greek, starting a b.
Advantages Of Learning Greek, Russian and Hebrew
Each of these languages helps you with the others and opens up more words you can read on your travels and when armchair travelling. You will see words in Hebrew in photos of Israel and synagogues and Jewish museums and biblical archaeological digs and mosaic worldwide. On the internet, you will have words in Hebrew on wines from Israel, Russian on Russian vodka, and Bulgarian wines. Greek is on boxes of Greek sweets and pastries such as Baklava, and restaurant menus, in museums with Greek and Roman coins - suddenly a world of new words opens up.
What's Cyrillic and why do I need it?
The Hebrew letters led to the Greek letters. The Greek letters led to the Russian letters. Learning any one of these three difficult looking alphabets will help you learn the other three.
When you are travelling you get an enormous sense of achievement and feel you are in control if you can recognize even just a few letters. I recognized the word Exodus on the exit of a Greek plane. The word Athens was on every giant road sign on a coach going in and out of the city.
Then I started looking at the Russian alphabet and was thrilled to learn the word for park on the station for Victory Park. It's one of the main museum complexes and parks above a central station in Moscow.
How Do Hebrew and Russian Relate?
Hebrew helps you with Russian. Russian helps you with Hebrew.
When Would You See Hebrew?
Going back to the Hebrew, if you are not planning to go to Israel, and didn't fast for Yom Kippur and go to a synagogue this weekend ((October first, 2017) where would you ever see Hebrew? Actually, Hebrew letters are all over lots of foods and wines in supermarkets in London, England, and New York - everywhere. Jewish or Israeli restaurants have Jewish words on menus. Even if you didn't go in, you'd see the sign using the word kosher in Hebrew in the window of the deli you pass in the high street (which in America would be called Main Street). At least the word, the same goes for the USA, all the kosher restaurants in Jewish museums in places like Anne Frank's house museum in Amsterdam Holland, the Museum of Tolerance in Victory Park in Moscow.
You are likely to find a word or two, certainly the three letters for Kosher (c-sh-r, written right to left) in Hebrew on packets of matzoh (crackers) in the supermarket, or some packets of bagels. If the hummus has run out - nip over to the kosher section and there's the hummus with the word kosher on it. Even if you only knew this one letter, you could work out that a three letter Hebrew word with a sh in the middle might say kosher. The Hebrew SH letter, like a W is the same in Russian.
Hebrew Helps You Learn Russian
Now that you know that the Hebrew letter W is the middle letter SH in kosher, you can recognize one of the Russian letters, the one which looks like W and is pronounced SH. (Sh - don't tell anyone!)
Where Can I use Russian, or Rather The Cyrillic Alphabet?
The Cyrillic alphabet will help you follow your way around many other countries, such as Bulgaria, which uses Cyrillic.
The Cyrillic alphabet was devised by Cyril, a monk, with his brother and 'brother' monk, methodical Mehodius. They took the Greek alphabet and added about nine more letters for sounds which the Greeks didn't have.
How do I read the Russian alphabet? Especially those station names.
Answer
The station names are the easiest and help you to remember letters. But I've finally devised a system for remembering each letter.
Russian Made Easy
Here's the whole alphabet in a neat box copied from Wikipedia. Thirty-three letters are in the box and several of them look the same as the Latin alphabet. Other have little dots or tags to help you remember how they are similar to the English sounds but not quite the same. The order of the letters is the same as the Latin and Greek, starting a b.
Advantages Of Learning Greek, Russian and Hebrew
Each of these languages helps you with the others and opens up more words you can read on your travels and when armchair travelling. You will see words in Hebrew in photos of Israel and synagogues and Jewish museums and biblical archaeological digs and mosaic worldwide. On the internet, you will have words in Hebrew on wines from Israel, Russian on Russian vodka, and Bulgarian wines. Greek is on boxes of Greek sweets and pastries such as Baklava, and restaurant menus, in museums with Greek and Roman coins - suddenly a world of new words opens up.
What's Cyrillic and why do I need it?
The Hebrew letters led to the Greek letters. The Greek letters led to the Russian letters. Learning any one of these three difficult looking alphabets will help you learn the other three.
When you are travelling you get an enormous sense of achievement and feel you are in control if you can recognize even just a few letters. I recognized the word Exodus on the exit of a Greek plane. The word Athens was on every giant road sign on a coach going in and out of the city.
Then I started looking at the Russian alphabet and was thrilled to learn the word for park on the station for Victory Park. It's one of the main museum complexes and parks above a central station in Moscow.
How Do Hebrew and Russian Relate?
Hebrew helps you with Russian. Russian helps you with Hebrew.
When Would You See Hebrew?
Going back to the Hebrew, if you are not planning to go to Israel, and didn't fast for Yom Kippur and go to a synagogue this weekend ((October first, 2017) where would you ever see Hebrew? Actually, Hebrew letters are all over lots of foods and wines in supermarkets in London, England, and New York - everywhere. Jewish or Israeli restaurants have Jewish words on menus. Even if you didn't go in, you'd see the sign using the word kosher in Hebrew in the window of the deli you pass in the high street (which in America would be called Main Street). At least the word, the same goes for the USA, all the kosher restaurants in Jewish museums in places like Anne Frank's house museum in Amsterdam Holland, the Museum of Tolerance in Victory Park in Moscow.
You are likely to find a word or two, certainly the three letters for Kosher (c-sh-r, written right to left) in Hebrew on packets of matzoh (crackers) in the supermarket, or some packets of bagels. If the hummus has run out - nip over to the kosher section and there's the hummus with the word kosher on it. Even if you only knew this one letter, you could work out that a three letter Hebrew word with a sh in the middle might say kosher. The Hebrew SH letter, like a W is the same in Russian.
Hebrew Helps You Learn Russian
Now that you know that the Hebrew letter W is the middle letter SH in kosher, you can recognize one of the Russian letters, the one which looks like W and is pronounced SH. (Sh - don't tell anyone!)
Where Can I use Russian, or Rather The Cyrillic Alphabet?
The Cyrillic alphabet will help you follow your way around many other countries, such as Bulgaria, which uses Cyrillic.
The Cyrillic alphabet was devised by Cyril, a monk, with his brother and 'brother' monk, methodical Mehodius. They took the Greek alphabet and added about nine more letters for sounds which the Greeks didn't have.
Start reading across from the top left.
The first letter A. That's easy. Our first letter!. The next one is B. It is a b like a bed, a four poster bed with a canopy. Towards the end is the W which we know is SH.
B and V in Hebrew and Russian
Now go back to the beginning. In Hebrew, the B and V sign are the same with an added dot for one of them. In the Russian alphabet, the B and the V look almost the same. You can see that the Russian alphabet ends with a reversed r, like the r in toys are us. Just think of the Russians as reversing everything and taking all the Latin alphabet letters and reversing them, or adding little hooks or commas to make new letters.
ABV in Russian
The English alphabet goes ABC, but the Hebrew and Russian alphabet go ABV. The letters for B and V are almost the same. Remember Russians Reverse. Instead of using the normal b for b they use the normal Latin b for V, whilst the four poster bed symbol is b.
ABVG - Go!
In English to start a race, we say: One, two, three, GO! The Russian alphabet is the same. The fourth symbol is G (for 'go' in English). The Russian G looks like a squared off and unfinished G. Upright with a pointer at the top, pointing to the right like a pointer of a starter gun held at head height for 'go'.
That's enough for one lesson. We have dealt with five Russian letters, ABVG and SH! Time for a coffee break. Come back to the next post for some more Russian letters.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages. See my previous posts on learning Russian. Please bookmark your favourite posts and follow me and share links with your family and friends.
PS - Watch out for my two new travel websites coming soon. One will be on destinations. The other will be on what to pack and wear. I shall announce it on one of my posts on this website within a week. This website has the words Angela Lansbury and travel. One of the new ones will contain the word travel.
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