I was very fortunate to have my grandma teach me the Russian alphabet mostly by providing me with some old manuals, and though I did not learn much in terms of vocabulary, I learned enough to find it a rather simple language - which, nonetheless, needs its share of practice and memorization. You might be surprised to learn that the Russian alphabet .. ..is slightly different from the Ukrainian one .. ..although both languages have evolved from Proto-Slavic. 1. Ґ in UkrainianThe Ukrainian alphabet has Ґ ґ, but Russian doesn’t (in Russian, г represents the sound /g/). 2. І in UkrainianThe Ukrainian alphabet has І і, but the Russian one doesn’t (in Russian, it’s и to represent /i/). 3. Ы in RussianThe Russian alphabet has ы, but the Ukrainian one doesn’t (in Ukrainian, it’s и to represent /y/). 4. Є in UkrainianThe Ukrainian alphabet has Є є, but the Russian one doesn’t (in Russian, е represents /je/). 5. Ї in UkrainianThe Ukrainian alphabet has Ї ї, but Russian doesn’t (in Russian, it’s a combination йи to represent /ji/). 6. Ё in RussianThe Russian alphabet has Ё ё, but Ukrainian doesn’t (in Ukrainian, it’s a combination йо to represent /jo/) 7. ъ in RussianThe Russian alphabet has the hard sign (ъ), but Ukrainian doesn’t (in Ukrainian, the apostrophe is used instead (’). Here's the Russian alphabet in non-image version.
Here's two books: Schaum's and one that comes with audio samples. |