Russian Lesson 1 The Russian alphabet (with sounds)

Let's start with the very basics--the alphabet. The fact is that you can learn the Russian alphabetand will be able to read Russian words in less than two hours of your study time . If you are already slightly familiar with the Russian alphabet or feel confident about your learning abilities, you may want to go through this lesson in one set. Another strategy is to approach the alphabetstudy in chunks of letters and dedicate 15-20 minutes of your time a day to each chunk over a course of several days. 

Being able to decipher the Russian alphabet will open you the doors to understanding maps, restaurant menus and street signs. You will be able to read words at the hotel and the airport, expand your Russian vocabulary and progress with virtually every aspect of your Russian language study.

The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters, 20 of which are consonants, 11 are vowels and two are signs (the soft sign and the hard sign). The alphabet is also known as the Cyrillic alphabet.

To help you learn the Russian alphabet as quickly as possible, we will break up the alphabet into four chunks according to how similar (or different) they are to English letters.

1. The Perfect Matches

These six Russian letters remind the letters of the English alphabet by look and pronunciation. Take a moment to study them and you will be able to read a few simple Russian words.

A а - pronounced as in "father". It should not be confused with "a" as in "fate" or "map".

K к - pronounced as in "king".

M м - pronounced as in "most".

O о - pronounced as "au" in "aura". When unstressed, this letter makes a sound similar to the Russian "A" that you learned above but more reduced, almost like "u" in "under" or the first "o" in "tomato".

T т - pronounced as in "time".

E e - pronounced as "ye" in "yellow". 

Listen to http://rapidshare.com/files/261986307/group1.mp3 

Let's read and then check yourself

Words you can read now:

Мама - a mother
Кот - a cat
Там - there
Акт - an act
Том - a volume

Check yourself now
http://rapidshare.com/files/261987610/group1words.mp3