Русские буквы
Big lips: МА-МА! 💋 A cat: КОТ! 🐈 A rocket into space: КО-МЕ́-ТА! ☄️
- Don't read anything yet. Listen to the first Russian letters: А, К, М, О, Т, Е.
- They look like Latin letters – and sound almost the same!
ма́ма ☄️ коме́та 
кот ⚛️ а́том ☕ кака́о 📘 том
Speak! Говорите! Read all blue coloured "O"s as "U in up" or as "E in pen": МАМА, КОМЕТА, КОТ, АТОМ, КАКАО, МОККО, ТЕМА, ТОМ, МЕККА.
Вот это МАМА , а это КОМЕТА. О! МАМА - КОМЕТА ! Вот это ... , а это ... . О! ... - ... !
- Write the words in big letters: МА́МА, КОТ, А́ТОМ. Read them aloud.
- Blue О without stress sounds like А: коме́та → «каме́та».
Listen to the sound above and repeat aloud. Clap on the stress ´.
Ма́ма, коме́та, кот, а́том,
кака́о, мо́кко, те́ма, том, Ме́кка.
Вот э́то ма́ма, а э́то коме́та.
О! Ма́ма – коме́та!
Switch the video off.
- Read the words without help: ма́ма, кот, а́том, том.
- Make your own: Вот э́то кот, а э́то ма́ма! 😄
Can you do it without the video? – Молоде́ц! Go to the quiz.
The Russian alphabet "Cyrillic" is named in honor of St. Cyril, a Greek missionary who brought the written word to the Slavs in the 9th century. This alphabet, as it exists today, consists of 33 letters/symbols: 10 vowel symbols, 20 consonants, 1 semi-vowel and 2 symbols with no sound value. The following is a presentation of the Cyrillic alphabet "Кириллица". It consists of letters/symbols which:
1. These letters look like Latin letters and sound almost the same:
МА́МА, КОМЕ́ТА, КОТ, А́ТОМ, КАКА́О, МО́ККО, ТЕ́МА, ТОМ, МЕ́ККА
mum, comet, cat, atom, cocoa, mocha, topic, volume (a book), Mecca
- А К М О Т Е look like Latin letters and sound almost the same (Е = ye as in yes)
- О without stress sounds like А: коме́та → «каме́та»
- Вот э́то …, а э́то … = Here is …, and this is …
ударе́ние – stress – shows the syllable you say louder and longer, just like in English: LUN-dun (London), TEL-ih-fohn (telephone).
ЛО́НДОН – the stress is on the first syllable, as in English. But Russians say a real, round о: LON-d’n, not LUN-dun. The second о comes after the stress, so it is short and weak (like the a in sofa).
ТЕЛЕФО́Н – not like the English TEL-ih-fohn: the stress is on the last syllable: ti-li-FON (е without stress sounds like a short и). That is why we mark the stress.
🎯 Why does о sound like а?
- Русские буквы ≅ Russian letters, FAST 1-01
- Как "pen" на русском? ≅ What is a "pen" in Russian?
- Download FSI Russian FAST Course. It was developed by the United States government and is in the public domain. - http://www.fsi-language-courses.net/fsi-russian-language-course/