Russian	Sounds in English like:
А а	a – in father
Б б	b – in book, bag
В в	v – in vase, visitor
Г г	g – in get, good
Д д	d – in dot, duck
Е е	ye – in yes, yesterday
Ё ё	yo – in York, yonder
Ж ж	zh – in pleasure
З з	z – in zone, zoo
И и	i – in bit, street
Й й	y – in boy, toy
К к	k – in key, kiss
Л л	l – in hill, lane
М м	m – in man, moon
Н н	n – in nose, note
О о	o – in ball, born
П п	p – in peace, pin
Р р	r – in rabbit
С с	s – in small, sit
Т т	t – in table, tennis
У у	u – in moon, boot
Ф ф	f – in fine, funny
Х х	h – in hook, loch
Ц ц	ts – in gets, cats
Ч ч	ch – chair, chicken
Ш ш	sh – in shop, ship
Щ щ	shch – fresh cheese, Spanish sherry
Ъ ъ	no sound (hard sign – tiny pause)
Ы ы	y – in syllable, i – ill
Ь ь	no sound (soft sign adds soft y to preceding consonant)
Э э	a – in arrow, e – leg
Ю ю	u – in use, universe
Я я	ya – in yard (but shorter)

The appearance of letters change significantly in cursive writing!

TRUE FRIENDS, FALSE FRIENDS & NEW FRIENDS

In comparison with English:

o there are some letters in Russian that look and sound the same as in English, we call them “true friends”. They are: к, м, т, а, е, о;

o there are the letters that look the same as in English but in Russian they sound quite different, they are your “false friends”: в, н, р, с, y, х, ь. They correspond to English v, n, r, s, ch in loch, u and the soft sign looks like the small b ;

o there are also your “new friends”: б, п, ф, д, з, ц, ж, ч, ш, й, г, щ, ю, ы, ъ, я.

On the whole, the spelling of Russian words coincides with their pronunciation. This makes reading and writing much easier than in English. But you should keep in mind that:

There is a letter ь (soft sign) that doesn’t denote any sound, but indicates the softening of a preceding consonant.

The hard sign ъ (hard sign) occurs after the prefixes ending in any consonant when the root of the word starts with the vowels е, Ħ, ю, я. In these cases the consonant in the prefix is pronounced as a hard sound.

TONGUE TWISTERS

Very often there is no sense in tongue twisters. It is a play of words that helps to practice pronunciation.

Около кола колокола. There are bells round the pole.

На дворе трава, There is grass in the yard,

На траве дрова. there is firewood on the grass.

Лена ела еле-еле, Lena was eating slowly,

Лена ела так от лени. Lena was eating so because of laziness.

Хохотали хохотушки Girls were giggling

Хи-хи-хи да ха-ха-ха. he-he-he and ha-ha-ha.

Мама мыла Милу мылом, Mother was washing Mila with soap,

Мила мыло не любила. Mila didn’t like soap.

Мышки сушек насушили, Mice dried ring-shaped rolls.

Мышки кошек пригласили. Mice invited cats.