The new letters

Twenty-one letters left

The twelve familiar shapes are behind you. What remains are the letters Cyrillic invented for sounds the Latin alphabet spells with two or three letters – which is why Russian words look shorter written than they sound.

The letters that save you two keystrokes

Six of the new letters each replace an English digraph. Learn them as single sounds, not as combinations – Russians hear one sound, not two.

The four that need a mirror

Two letters that spell nothing

ь (soft sign) has no sound of its own: it softens the consonant in front of it, and that softening changes the word. ъ (hard sign) is rarer still – it only separates a prefix from a ya/yu/ye that follows.

мат – матьcheckmate – mother

Спасибо, хорошо!Thanks, I'm fine!