Граница — Choose where to start
Jump into practice, or branch into a reference section below.
Алфавит — The Cyrillic Alphabet
33 letters. Click any card to reveal the sound description.
Фразы — Common Phrases
Essential phrases for everyday situations. Transliteration shown in italics.
Слова — Vocabulary
Common Russian words grouped by category.
Карточки — Flashcard Practice
Flip each card, then mark if you knew it. Build up your score!
Select a deck and press Start to begin.
Ошибки — Missed Questions
Anything you've gotten wrong most recently in Flashcards, Review, or the Grammar drills lands here — get it right again and it clears itself.
Советы — Learning Tips
Practical guidance for beginners.
Pronunciation Basics
- Russian vowels shift when unstressed — "О" sounds like "a" when not stressed.
- Stress is unpredictable — must be memorized per word.
- Р is always rolled (trilled), like Spanish R.
- Ж sounds like the "s" in measure — zh.
- Х is a guttural "kh" like Scottish loch.
- Ы has no English equivalent — say "i" but with the back of your tongue raised.
Grammar Essentials
- Russian has no articles — no "a" or "the".
- Word order is flexible due to a case system (6 cases).
- Verbs have two aspects: imperfective (ongoing) and perfective (completed).
- Nouns have grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, neuter.
- Adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
Alphabet Learning Tips
- ~10 letters look and sound like English: А, Е, З, К, М, О, Т.
- Watch out for false friends: В = V, Н = N, Р = R, С = S, У = OO, Х = KH.
- Learn to read first, even before memorizing vocabulary.
- Write each letter by hand — muscle memory speeds up recognition.
Useful Resources
- Practice the Russian keyboard layout early on.
- Watch Russian media with subtitles to train your ear.
- Apps like Duolingo and Anki pair well with this app.
- Speaking out loud — even alone — dramatically improves retention.
- Learn 100 most common words first; they cover ~50% of everyday speech.
Polite Registers
- Russian has two "you": ты (ty) — informal, and вы (vy) — formal/plural.
- Use вы with strangers, elders, and in professional settings.
- Use ты with friends, family, and children.
- Switching from вы to ты signals growing familiarity.
Common Patterns
- Many Russian nouns ending in -ция match English -tion words (станция = station).
- Words ending in -ист often match English -ist (турист = tourist).
- -ский / -ская endings mean "-ish" or "-ic" (русский = Russian).
- Negation is simple: put не before the verb (я не знаю = I don't know).
Грамматика — Grammar Guide
Essential Russian grammar for beginners. Click 🔊 on any Russian word to hear it.
Новости — Russian in the News
Click a location marker to filter headlines by place. Each pin shows how many stories come from that region.
Уроки — Lessons
Complete each lesson to unlock the next. Progress is saved automatically.