English Approximants
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These six letters look, sound, and are pronounced similarly to their English counterparts. The English approximants are A, Е, К, О, М, and Т and can spell "Комета", which means "Comet".

LetterHI|Aa Russian name: а, Romanization: a (ah) Audio:audio|alfavit1.ogg|Listen
The first letter of the alphabet. It makes the same sound as the English "soft" A, in the words Article and car.
Example: Дa (DA) is pronounced DAH. It means "yes"



LetterHI|Кк ка, ka audio|alfavit12.ogg|Listen
The second approximant is called ка. Prepare to say a hard G (gum) but "voice" a K. It's a little softer than Kitten.
Example: Кот (KOT), is Russian for "male cat".



LetterHI|Мм эм, em audio|alfavit14.ogg|Listen
This letter is эм. The sound is produced the same as in English, by closing the lips, like Mom or mold.
Example: Мир (MIR), can mean either "world" or "peace".

LetterHI|Тт тэ, te audio|alfavit20.ogg|Listen
This letter, тэ, is pronounced like the English (hard) T. It resembles more tip and toe, not utter
Example: Три (TRI), means three, and sounds a bit like "tree".

Russian/Exercise|Practice reading 1| Practice reading the following, until confident. Remember, stress in (lesson text) Russian is indicated by an apostrophe (') before the accented syllable. (Note these are not actual words, just agglutinations of the four letters learned thus far.)

• как • там • а'та • мат • кат • мат • 'тама • а'мат • 'матам • 'тамат • а'тама • тама'ма • а'мака • 'такама

| Romanizations. Check appropriate accent and pronunciation.

• KAK • TAM • aTA • MAT • KAT • MAT • TAma • aMAT • MATam • TAmat • aTAma • tamaMA • aMAka • TAkama

These are the easiest four letters. The last two English Approximant are the letters "O" and "Е", but they have some special rules regarding pronunciation.

LetterHI|Oo o, o audio|alfavit16.ogg|Listen
When stressed, "O" is pronounced like the English O in "hello", but with a smaller, rounder mouth shape, and without the glide into a "W" present in English.
When unstressed, "O" sounds more like "A", as in English “Rosa's”.
Example: The word кот is pronounced KOT, but the word ко'та is pronounced kaTA.

LetterHI|Ее е, ye je or e
This letter has several rules that must be taken into consideration. Firstly, when it's stressed, and it's at the start of the word, after a vowel or after a hard or soft sign, it's pronounced "yeh". When unstressed, this becomes a short and unclear "yih". When it's stressed and after a consonant, it softens the consonant (we'll get to this later) and is just pronounced "eh", as in English "set", but a little softer and longer. When unstressed and after a consonant, it's pronounced like a short "i" as in English "sit", but shorter and less clearly.
Example: Есть (YEST´) means "to eat". Нет (NET or NYET) means "no". Ме'тро (miTRO) is "metro", and ев'рей (yivREY) means "Jew".

Russian/Exercise|Practice reading 2| Practice reading the following, until confident. (Note most of these are not actual words, just agglutinations of the four letters learned thus far.)

1. как • а'ка • 'така • та • ка • ок • ак • ат • от • от'о • ат'а • ак'а • 'мокота • мо'кота • ко'томота
2. аката'момо • ко'та • кот • кото'там • 'кототам • ко'тотам • матокато'ка • ма'токатока • ем • тем • 'еко
3. 'оке • е'ко • о'ке • 'еметоко • еме'токо • о'тоем • ото'ем • ко'мета

| Romanizations. Check appropriate accent and pronunciation, especially the changing O sound and the various realisations of Е. Aim for 100% accuracy, and repeat as needed.

1. KAK • aKA • TAka • TA • KA • OK • AK • AT • OT • atO • atA • akA • MOkata • maKOta • kaTOmata
2. akataMOma • kaTA • KOT • kataTAM • KOtatam • koTOtam • matakataKA • maTOkataka • YEM • TEM • YEka
3. Oki • yiKO • aKE • YEmitaka • yimiTOka • aTOyim • ataYEM • kaMEta

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Vocabulary

The first words to know in a language are the most frequently used expressions. Know these six phrases by heart before moving onto part 2. These words will not be romanized again, in the lesson text. Recognize the phrase in Cyrillic.

1. Здравствуйте	ZDRAstvuytye	Hello.
2. Да	DA	Yes.
3. Нет	NYET	No.
4. Спасибо	spaSIba	Thanks.
5. До свидания	da sviDAniya	Goodbye.
6. Что	SHTO	What?

Russian/Exercise|Saying Hello|Respond to the following in Russian:

1. Hello.
2. Are you a boy?
3. Are you a girl?
4. I bought you lunch.
5. Goodbye.
6. Guess what I bought?

| These are the proper responses.

1. Здравствуйте.
2. Да/Нет.
3. Да/Нет.
4. Спасибо.
5. До свидания.
6. Что?

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Saying Hello

Здравствуйте (ZDRAstvuytye) audio|Zdravstvuyte.ogg|Listen

Incidentally, the first word to learn in Russian (Hello) is one of the more difficult to pronounce. All of the letters will be explicated in future Parts, but here's a short analysis on the sounds in "Здравствуйте":

• The first syllable is Здравст (ZDRAST).
• З - Start very slowly and produce the Z sound (as in Buzz).
• дра - Pronounce the next phoneme (DRA). Try saying dollar (more like dalla) quickly, without moving either mouth nor teeth. The "R" sound is a short trill, similar to Spanish, meaning the tongue flicks off the roof of the mouth.
• в - this is a silent letter (not pronounced)

• ст - 'Terminate the air flow by moving the tongue to the gap in the teeth. This is the final "ST".

That is the first syllable. Follow up with the rest of the word, "вуйте", two syllables, which is romanized like vuytye. Practice until the word can be said twice in one second.

It may be advantageous to learn the "informal" counterpart of this greeting. Saying привет (priVYET) conveys the same thing to friends and family. The first syllable is pronounced PREE, but remember to roll the R. The second syllable is stressed, and is simply "VYET".

Part 2: False friends >>

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