Cyrillic Letters That Look Like Latin but Sound Different

Many Cyrillic letters look like Latin letters. Some match in sound, and some do not.

Same shape, same sound

Letter	Sound
а	a
е	ye
к	k
м	m
о	o
т	t

Same shape, different sound

These are the ones that trip learners.

Cyrillic	Looks like	Actually sounds like
В	B	v
Н	H	n
Р	P	r
С	C	s
У	Y	u
Х	X	kh

Reading examples

• ресторан looks like "pecTopaH" but is restoran, restaurant.
• сок looks like "coK" but is sok, juice.
• нос looks like "Hoc" but is nos, nose.
• хлеб is khlyep, bread.

Letters with no Latin partner

Learn these as new shapes: б, г, д, ж, з, и, л, п, ф, ц, ч, ш, щ, ъ, ы, ь, э, ю, я.

Loanwords help

Russian borrows many international words, so a few look familiar once decoded: банк (bank), метро (metro), такси (taksi), кофе (kofe), парк (park).

Tips

1. Resist reading by shape.
2. Practise with signs and menus.
3. Use the dictionary to check any word you decode.

Look up any Russian word with English Russian Dictionary →