Know that the Cyrillic alphabet has 33 characters, including 21 consonants and 10 vowels. The remaining two characters have no sound. These characters (Ь Ъ)--the "soft sign" and the "hard sign" respectively--merely signal how you should read the characters around them. Typically, these characters are "separation signs." For example, vowels after a soft sign are pronounced separately from the consonant before it. The hard sign separates a prefixes ending in a consonant from the palatized vowel that starts the rest of the word A palatized vowel is one whose pronunciation is changed, or made harder, like a consonant.
Learn how to pronounce Cyrillic letters by grouping them into the following five categories: those that are pronounced like their English-language counterparts (А Е О К М С Т), those that look like letters of the Latin alphabet but are pronounced differently (Р Н В У Х), those that resemble their Greek alphabet models (Г Д Л П Ф), those that are borrowed from the Hebrew alphabet (Ш Ц) and those unique to the Cyrillic alphabet (Ч Щ Б Ж З И Й Э Ю Я Ы Ё).
Practice pronouncing the Latin-looking letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. The P is said "ehr," like a trilled "r" in Spanish. The H is said "enn," like the "n" in "nun." The B is said "veh," like the "v" in "victory." The Y is said "oo" like the vowel sound in "tooth." The X is said "kha" and has the harsh "h" sound of "Chanukah."
Practice pronouncing the Greek-like Cyrillic letters. The Г letter, or "geh," sounds like the "g" of "get." The Д letter, or "deh," sounds like the "d" of "dog." The Л letter, or "ell," has a different sound if it is hard or soft. If it is hard, it has the "l" sound in "bell"'; if it is soft, it has the "l" sound in "left." The П letter, or "peh," sounds like the "p" in "pearl." The Ф letter, or "eff," sounds like the "f" in "fast."
Practice pronouncing the Cyrillic letters borrowed from Hebrew. The Ш letter, or "shah," sounds like the "sh" of "bush." The Ц letter, or "tseh," sounds like the "ts" of "its."
Practice pronouncing the unique Cyrillic letters. The Ч letter, or "cheh," sounds like the "ch" sound in "chirp." The Щ letter, or "shcha" combines the "sh" sound of "sheep" with the "ch" sound of "cheap." Practice differentiating the Щ sound from the Ш sound. The Б letter, or "beh," sounds like the "b" of "bamboo." The Ж letter, or "zheh," has the "zh" sound in "leisure." The З letter, or "zeh," has the "z" sound in "zoo." The И letter has a long "ee" sound, like the kind in "tea." The Й letter has a "y" sound like the kind in "toy." The Э letter, which means "backwards eh" in Russian, has the short "eh" sound of "empty." The Ю letter has the "yoo" sound of "use" and "you." The Я letter sounds like the "yah" of "yacht." The Ы letter sounds like the "il" in milk. The Ё letter sounds like the "yaw" of "yawn." When handwritten, this Ё will not have its two dots.