Overview

Russian is an East Slavic language and the most widely spoken Slavic language in the world. It is the official language of Russia and one of the official languages of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Alphabet

Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which consists of 33 letters. The alphabet was developed from the Greek alphabet and adapted for Slavic languages.

Sound Features

Russian has a rich phonetic system with:

• Hard and soft consonants
• Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
• Palatalization
• Stress patterns that affect meaning

Key Grammar Highlights

Russian grammar features:

• Six grammatical cases
• Three grammatical genders
• Complex aspect system for verbs
• Free word order (though default is SVO)

Related Languages

Russian is part of the East Slavic group, closely related to Ukrainian and Belarusian. It also shares features with other Slavic languages.

Basic Phrases

• Hello: Привет / Здравствуйте
• Thank you: Спасибо
• Yes: Да
• No: Нет
• Please: Пожалуйста

Resources

• Russian language courses and textbooks
• Russian media and literature
• Language exchange platforms
• Online dictionaries and grammar guides