Learn how to pronounce the letter names and sounds of the Russian alphabet. The Russian alphabet is complex and different from our own, including 33 letters, with 10 vowels, 21 consonants and two soundless letters. The names of the Russian letters differ from the sounds they designate. Use an online resource, such as "Master Russian," to hear a sound clip of the name of each individual letter. Learn how each letter looks, printing them in upper and lower case and in cursive. Use an online resource, once you know the name of each letter, to hear how each letter is pronounced.
Enhance your knowledge of Russian by learning tips about basic Russian pronunciation rules. Some vowels contain hard sounds whereas others contain soft sounds; some are stressed while others are unstressed. For example, the letter "A" may be pronounced "Ah" stressed or "Uh" unstressed. Consonants may also be pronounced either soft or hard. For example, the "M" sound may be pronounced hard as in the English word "monk" or soft as in the English word "muse."
Educate yourself with a brief overview of Russian by leaning the common Russian words and their English translations. Listen to sound clips of each word and learn the part of speech of each common Russian word. Use "Master Russian" to learn common Russian greetings, including "Hello," "Good morning," "How are you?" and "Nice to see you." Learn the spelling and pronunciation of common farewells and phrases, including phrases for dining, making acquaintances, days of the week and months of the year.
Once you have learned the basic greetings and phrases, try to form sentences on your own. Learn the Russian verbs and pronouns to form short sentences. Pronouns such as I, you, he/she/it, we, you and they are in the nominative case and are used at the beginning of sentences. Learn the nominative case translation for Russian words, then the accusative case pronouns to be used as the objects of sentences. Russian verbs are used only in the present tense, and endings change according to the sentence subject. Learn the patterns of the Russian verb conjugations so you can form sentences more easily.