Learn Russian the easy way: The COMPLETE Russian course for beginners (9 hours)

A Fast-Track Russian Course: Read, Write, and Speak from Zero Begin as a complete beginner and quickly master the Cyrillic alphabet to read 1,000 Russian words with understandable pronunciation. A secret word list after the third lesson lets you download, read, and verify that you truly understand all 1,000 items. By the end, introduce yourself and others, talk about free time, work, studies, family, and home, and handle slow, helpful native speech. The program aligns with the official A1 exam of Russian as a foreign language and offers an optional certificate to mark your achievement.

Study System: Notebook, Goals, and a Learning Partner Handwriting accelerates memory, so keep a notebook and pause to write new language by hand. Set a realistic daily commitment (about 20 minutes), declare it publicly, and stick to the plan. Invite a friend to study together for motivation and accountability; learning together is more fun and more effective. Each lesson follows a story–rule–practice sequence to build skills step by step.

Informal Greetings and ‘How Are Things?’ without ‘to be’ Start with Привет and ask Как дела?—literally “How [are] things?” because Russian drops the verb “to be” in the present. Answer with Отлично, Хорошо, or Плохо, then turn it back with А у тебя? Use у + pronoun (у тебя) to express “by you/with you,” the natural way to ask about someone’s state. Early practice focuses on listening to the rhythm of Russian before reading.

Letters vs Sounds: Learn Sounds First Prioritize sounds over letter names; what matters in reading is the sound a letter gives in a word. Meet the first chunk of the alphabet with vivid associations and a single fixed sound per letter. Grasp how я, ё, ю combine a consonant-like y-sound with a vowel, often softening the consonant before them. Train the short consonant glide й to produce these combinations cleanly.

From Syllables to First Words Blend consonant–vowel pairs (ба, ва, да, ге, де, зе) to train recognition speed. Notice softness before iotated vowels: бе, бё, бя sound softer than ба, бо. Read your first words like ёж, где, and давай, feeling how softness and stress shape the flow. Frequent repetition locks letter–sound links into automatic responses.

Polite Hellos, Goodbyes, and the Formal You Use Здравствуйте and До свидания in formal contexts, with a semiformal Здрасьте in friendly settings. Switch between ты and вы depending on familiarity, age, and status; А вы? politely returns a question. Match farewells to context: Пока for informal, До свидания for formal. Keep practicing with short, natural dialogues to build confidence.

Eleven More Letters and Core Pronunciation Habits Add с, л, м, н, о, п, р, с, т, у, ф and keep their sounds stable: с is always [s], о is rounded when stressed. Avoid English-style aspiration on п and т; Russian stops release with less air. Train the trilled р by placing the tongue behind the upper teeth and using airflow to vibrate the tip. Pair these with vowels to read confidently without guessing.

Building Words with Reliable Syllables Combine the new letters to read co, lo, mo, no, po, ro, so, to, fo with steady rhythm. Decode everyday words—мама, папа, торт, сестра, брат, привет—without guesswork. Reinforce that consistent letter–sound mapping accelerates reading speed. Short, frequent drills make recall automatic.

This, My, and Your Change with Gender Say Это… when pointing or identifying, then adapt possessives to gender: мой папа, моя мама, моя собака. Use твой/твоя for “your,” matching the noun’s gender, even when endings deceive (папа is masculine, собака is feminine). Keep pronunciation natural by reducing unstressed о to [a] in forms like моя. Practice with real family words to internalize the patterns.

Finish the Alphabet: Special Letters and Signs Learn х, ц, ч, ш, щ, ъ, ы, э, ю, я and what they do to neighboring sounds. Distinguish hard ш from soft щ; hear ю and я as a glide plus vowel (й+у, й+а). Use ь to soften the preceding consonant and ъ to keep it hard; form ы by freezing the tongue in the [u] position and smiling with the lips. Targeted minimal pairs make these contrasts stick.

Mastering New Contrasts: Softness, ‘щ’ vs ‘ш’, and ь Compare ши and щи to feel hard vs soft hushing sounds, then anchor them in syllables and words. Let iotated vowels soften preceding consonants (бё, бя, бю) and watch how ь enforces softness at word level. Read машина, семья, чай, цирк to solidify the patterns. Small softness differences can change meanings, so precision matters.

Tech and Media Words You Already Know Transfer knowledge with near-identical tech terms: видео, сайт, компьютер, where spelling maps to Cyrillic and sound shifts. Roll the Russian р and reduce unstressed о (компьютер) to sound natural. Decode international vocabulary quickly by applying consistent Russian sound rules. This category alone yields dozens of instant wins.

Borrowed Foods, Animals, and Plants Recognize familiar items that don’t grow in Russia as cognates: пицца, жираф, лаванда, цунами. Read ц as [ts] and х as a steady, voiceless sound, keeping each letter’s single value. Build confidence by confirming meaning through predictable pronunciation. These words multiply your vocabulary with minimal effort.

Professions and Sciences as Easy Cognates Many job titles map cleanly: дизайнер, пилот, with stress shifts as the main difference. Scientific fields follow transparent patterns: физика, философия. Reading aloud with correct stress cements these high-frequency words. Leverage similarities to accelerate understanding.

Sports, Music, and Dance; Mind the Soft Sign Expand with international leisure terms: гольф, гитара, танго. Use ь to signal a soft consonant (гольф → мягкое л), a small mark with big impact on sound. Pronunciation slips can create comic misunderstandings, so aim for softness where the spelling demands it. Short drills tie spelling to sound reliably.

Morphology Clues: From -tion to -ция and Beyond Map English -tion/-sion to Russian -ция/-зия (эволюция, нация; профессия, миссия, иллюзия). Convert -logy to -логия (экология, физиология) and -al to -альный (идеальный, банальный). Shift -ive to -ивный (активный, позитивный, примитивный) and -ic/-ical/-ly to -ический/-ически (фантастический, классический, политически, эпически). These patterns unlock far more than 1,000 words with minimal effort.

Identify People and Roles Without ‘to be’ Say Это Джон. Он программист. Она студентка, dropping “is/are” entirely in the present. Negate with не: Она не программист; Мы не студенты. Ask Кто это? and add А кто вы? to learn who someone is, linking ideas with и. The structure stays simple and natural.

The Elusive Ы and How Stress Changes Vowels Produce ы by shaping the mouth and tongue for [u] while spreading the lips as for [i], yielding a short central vowel. Memorize stress with each word, because Russian stress moves and controls vowel reduction. Unstressed о weakens toward [a], so outside the stressed syllable vowels sound lighter (город, Антон, спорт). Repetition with marked stress locks in correct rhythm.

Gender Rules and Exceptions Made Visible Russian nouns come in masculine (ending with a consonant/й/ь), feminine (-а/-я/ь), and neuter (-о/-е), and this gender choice affects words around them. Some endings mislead: папа, дедушка, дядя end in -a yet are masculine; кофе is masculine despite ending in -e; имя is neuter with -я. Soft-sign nouns can be masculine or feminine, but words ending in -чь are reliably feminine. Matching gender explains phrases like Где аудитория?—Вот она and Где рюкзак?—Вот он.

Soft vs Hard Consonants That Change Meaning Some consonants are always hard (ш, ж, ц) or always soft (й, ч, щ); most come in hard/soft pairs. Softness arises before е, ё, ю, я, и or via ь, and it can flip meanings: лук (onion) vs люк (hatch), матч vs мяч. Train positions and minimal pairs to avoid semantic traps caused by missed softness. Precise articulation prevents confusion.

Names and Polite Introductions That Work Use personal pronouns я, ты, он, она, оно, мы, вы, они, reserving вы for plural or respectful singular. Ask Как вас зовут?/Как тебя зовут? and answer Меня зовут…; Его/Её/Наше/Ваше/Их зовут…, closing with Очень приятно. Form yes–no questions by intonation and agree on Ты/Вы with Давайте на ты when appropriate. Izвините/Извини politely attracts attention in public settings.

Who vs What and Essential Classroom Objects Choose Кто это? for people and animals, and Что это? for objects. Distinguish аудитория (university room) from класс (school room) and рюкзак (backpack) from портфель (satchel). Label the room with useful nouns: стол, стул, тетрадь, книга, окно, дверь, учитель/преподаватель, and use Вот to indicate “here it is.” This vocabulary grounds conversations in familiar spaces.

Present Tense, First Conjugation, and a Handy Phrase Conjugate first-conjugation verbs by removing -ть and adding -ю/-у, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ют/-ут: читаю, слушаешь, делает, думаем, понимаете, знают. Build the negative by inserting unstressed не: Я не знаю, Он не понимает. Ask Что по-русски…? to request the Russian word for something on the spot. One present tense covers both “I do” and “I am doing.”

Second Conjugation, ‘E’ After Ж/Ш/Ц, and Adverbs Read е as [э]-like after ж, ш, ц: журнал, жираф, суши; otherwise keep it as regular e. Conjugate second-conjugation verbs by cutting -ить (or related suffix) and adding -ю/-у, -ишь, -ит, -им, -ите, -ят/-ат: говорю, помнишь, смотрит, видим, верите, стоят/сидят. Some -ать/-еть verbs belong to this group by exception, so memorize their patterns. Use adverbs in -о (много, мало, быстро, медленно) and по-русски/по-английски when a language is the tool.

Drills, Tricky Pairs, and Shape-Shifting Stems Contrast стоять (to stand) and стоить (to cost), identical in writing in many forms but distinguished by stress. Separate слышать (to hear, no intent) from слушать (to listen, with intent), and видеть (to see) from смотреть (to watch/look at). Note stem changes in the 1st person singular: вижу, ненавижу, сижу, and special endings -у/-ат when stems end in ш, ж, ч, щ (слышу, лежат, молчу). Focused drilling turns these into reflexes.

In the City: Final Devoicing, Plurals, and Free Time Invite with Давайте… and navigate with Здесь vs Там; point with Это… and recognize Вот for “here it is.” Devoice final consonants (город → [-т]) unless followed by a vowel; keep pairs like д/т, б/п, г/к straight. Form plurals: masculine consonant stems → -ы/-и; feminine -а/-я → -ы/-и; neuter -о/-е → -а/-я; after ш, ж, ч, щ, к, г, х use -и; loanwords like кафе stay invariable. Note irregular plurals like города, люди, дети, and talk about свободное время with гулять, visiting places утром, днём, вечером, ночью, and playing sports with играть в + noun.

Smart Quizzes and Unstressed Vowel Secrets Quizzes test recognition, spelling, and logic without revealing answers, so you infer meaning from pictures and context. Unstressed Russian о sounds like а, so pronunciation may match while spelling and meaning differ. Tasks shift mid-exercise to train question words and everyday themes like time and work. Each lesson on the platform includes multiple quizzes, voice feedback, grammar reviews, and flashcards.

Ya and Soft L: Position and Stress Shape Sound The letter я has strong and weak variants: stressed it’s a clear ya, unstressed it may approach a or even e. After different L qualities, sequences shift: hard л + а gives ла, soft л + а yields a gentler ля, and word-initial я often starts with a glide y+a. To pronounce soft л, raise the front/middle tongue toward the hard palate while lowering the root, then flow into the vowel. Examples contrast strong я, soft ля, initial y+a, and e-like reductions governed by stress and position.

Irregular Russian Plurals and a Station Story Beyond standard -ы/-и and -а/-я endings, many high-frequency nouns form irregular plurals. Город → города, поезд → поезда, лес → леса, остров → острова; professions like доктор → доктора and учитель → учителя follow similar patterns. Друг → друзья mutates both consonant and ending, and some words (e.g., дерево → деревья) change roots radically. A mnemonic story at a train station ties together поезда, профессора, директора, учителя, доктора, паспорта, леса, города, дома, and острова to anchor these exceptions.

Playing Sports and Instruments with One Verb Играть conjugates like a first-conjugation verb (preserving the stem vowel) and pairs with different prepositions. With sports and games, use в + accusative: играть в футбол, баскетбол, волейбол. With instruments, use на + prepositional and adjust endings: играть на гитаре, на скрипке; пианино doesn’t change. The structure also labels free time: в свободное время я играю …

Saying “I Have” and Spotting Silent Consonants Existence with possession uses у + genitive + есть: у меня есть сестра; у неё есть кот; у нас есть дом. Mute consonants appear in frequent words, especially clusters: счастье and счастливый lose the т, солнце drops л, and поздно reduces the д. Сейчас often shortens in speech to щас, with с + ч merging to щ. These patterns are lexical, so they’re best learned word by word.

Relatives You’ll Actually Use Core kinship terms expand fast: дядя, тётя, племянник, племянница, племянники, внук, внучка, внуки. The collective племянники и племянницы captures nieces and nephews together. Combine them with the possession frame: у неё есть дети; это её племянники. Confusing sets become manageable through reading, listening, and spaced review.

Numbers to Ten and Real Phone Numbers Counting introduces stress reduction: unstressed vowels weaken, so spelling and sound can diverge. Zero is ноль, and phone numbers are commonly grouped (e.g., 928) rather than recited digit-by-digit, though both styles are used. A practical dialogue models asking for a number and coping with mishearing, switching to single digits for clarity. Notes and downloadable worksheets support pronunciation and recall.

Can, Please, and Doing Simple Math Мочь is a modal that takes an infinitive: могу говорить, не могу петь. Its polite companions vary by context: можно? можно ваш…? скажите, пожалуйста…? Using плюс, минус, и равно, you can pronounce problems and solutions aloud to reinforce numbers. The second verb after мочь stays in the infinitive without personal endings.

From Countries to Nationalities and Languages Identity uses zero copula: я из России; я американец; мой родной язык — английский. Из takes the genitive, with many -ия countries shifting to -ии: из Италии, из Франции, из Германии; the abbreviation США stays unchanged. Nationalities and languages often share derivational patterns: американец/американка — английский; испанец/испанка — испанский. Formal вы/вас contrasts with informal ты/тебя in “Откуда вы/ты?”

The Sound Ю and First-Person Quirks Ю at word start sounds like English “you,” but after soft consonants it yields a softened u-like vowel (лю, бью). Verbs спать, любить, готовить belong to the second conjugation yet alter the first person singular: я сплю, я люблю, я готовлю. The -ть drops and a consonant + -л- surfaces only in 1sg for some verbs. With these, you can say: я не сплю — я думаю; я люблю русский; я готовлю.

Home Tour with Жить and Снимать Describing a flat combines verbs and space words: я живу в Москве; я снимаю квартиру; моя комната слева/справа/прямо. Essential items include кровать, шкаф, балкон, стол, книжный шкаф, кухня, плита, холодильник, раковина. “Это наша квартира” anchors possession while you point out rooms and furniture. Photos and directions (налево, направо, прямо) situate everything clearly.

Hard and Soft Hushers, Final Devoicing, and Whose? Ш and Ж remain hard; Ч and Щ are soft, and final voiced consonants devoice (муж → муш). The sequence что is pronounced што, and word-final ж sounds like ш. Possessives agree with the noun’s gender and number, not with the owner: мой дом, моя сумка, моё молоко, мои очки; его/её are invariable. The question чей/чья/чьё/чьи selects the right possessive form by the object’s gender.

Weather, Adverbs, and “Terribly” for Emphasis Adverbs usually end in -о and grade performance and conditions: хорошо/плохо, быстро/медленно, красиво/скучно. Talking weather blends degrees: тепло, жарко, холодно; летом тепло, зимой часто очень холодно. Ужасно intensifies meaning both literally and hyperbolically: ужасно холодно or ужасно красиво. Small talk chains compare cities for cost, beauty, and boredom.

When “ЧН” Sounds Like “ШН” The cluster чн in common words softens to шн in speech: скучно → [скушно], конечно → [канешно]. There isn’t a simple rule, so memorize frequent items with mini-stories or images. Contrast pairs remind you that not every ч stays [ч]: context and word frequency drive the shift. Rehearsing these few “illogical” pronunciations prevents misunderstandings.

Family Plurals That Change Inside Several kinship nouns mutate in the plural: друг → друзья, сын → сыновья, брат → братья, муж → мужья, and дочь/мать → дочери/матери. Vowel alternations and consonant shifts travel with the root, not just the ending. These high-frequency forms repay memorization and spaced repetition. Reading aloud cements both sound and shape.

Building 11–19 the Russian Way Numbers 11–19 stack the unit onto ten with -надцать: одиннадцать, двенадцать, тринадцать, четырнадцать, пятнадцать, шестнадцать, семнадцать, восемнадцать, девятнадцать. Watch for spelling quirks: двойная н в одиннадцать; no soft sign in пятнадцать; fixed -надцать across the set. Stress and reduction hide some vowels in fast speech, so rely on the pattern more than sound alone. Practice by listening and writing them from dictation.

Saying Your Age with Dative and “Год/Года/Лет” Age uses the dative: мне/тебе/ему/ей/нам/вам/им … лет/год/года. After 1, use год; after 2–4, года; after 5 and above, лет, repeating after 20: двадцать один год; двадцать два года; двадцать пять лет. The question is Сколько ему/ей лет? and the reply fits the pattern: ему 15 лет; ей 2 года. The dative pronouns deserve drilling until automatic.

Free Stress and Past Tense by Gender and Number Russian stress is mobile and lexical, so memorize words with their accent. The past tense adds -л/-ла/-ло/-ли to the stem and agrees with the subject’s gender/number: был/была/было/были; работал/работала/работало/работали. Negation shifts stress (e.g., не был vs не было), aiding comprehension in speech. Seasons appear in the instrumental without prepositions: летом, зимой, весной, осенью.

Easy Future with “Быть” + Infinitive Future forms of быть combine with an infinitive: буду петь, будешь смотреть, будет учить, будем читать, будете писать, будут спать. The following verb stays in the infinitive and never conjugates. Irregular петь supplies stressed й in present (пою, поёшь) and past пел/пела. Days of the week take в + accusative, with во inserted before clusters: в понедельник, во вторник, в среду, в четверг, в пятницу, в субботу, в воскресенье.

My City, Emphasis, and Leisure Verbs “Это не Милан” contrasts places and sets tone; “именно поэтому” pinpoints the reason. Нравится requires the dative: мне нравится Италия; мне нравятся озёра. Даже highlights the unexpected, and даже спортсмены тренируются в бассейне shows scope. Заниматься covers study and training; кататься marks moving for fun: кататься на велосипеде, на коньках, на лошади.

Calls, Stations, and Movement Nuance Алло answers the phone; станция is a stop, while вокзал is a transport hub with services. Ждать is first conjugation but keeps -ёшь/-ёт: я жду, ты ждёшь. Russian splits running into multidirectional бегать and unidirectional бежать: бегаю обычно; бегу сейчас к выходу. Будешь? elliptically asks “What will you eat/drink?”, and с + instrumental pairs with ingredients (пицца с грибами).

Naming Things and Asking Where with Prepositional Lifeless objects “are called” with называться: город называется…, ресторан называется…. Special questions (когда, где, почему, как) take falling intonation on the question word. Где? and о чём?/о ком? cue the prepositional: в музее, на улице, о фильме. Street names appear with the preposition and case: на Невском проспекте; в Петербурге; на выставке.

В or На: Places, Processes, and Open Spaces Use в for fixed places and геолокации (в музее, в парке, в Москве) and на for processes/activities (на выставке, на балете) and many open venues (на стадионе, на вокзале). В интернете is conventional despite being virtual space. Before voiceless consonants, в devoices to [ф]: в субботу → [ф субботу], вспоминать → [фспоминать]. Во surfaces before tough clusters: во вторник, во Флориде.

Special Locatives with Stress on the End A handful of nouns preserve old locative forms with -у/-ю and end-stress: в углу/на углу, в лесу, в саду, в снегу, в аэропорту, в порту. Contrast inside vs surface: в углу комнаты vs на углу дома. Adjectives agree normally in the prepositional: в тёплом море, в любимом ресторане, в итальянской кухне. Some stems contract (угол → в углу), so learn the pairings.

Describing People: Looks, Forms, and Flow To report phone trouble, say у меня сел телефон; я не зарядил(а) телефон; батарея почти села. What someone looks like uses выглядеть: как он выглядит? — высокий, симпатичный; короткая борода; красивая улыбка; большая красная сумка. Adjectives have strong/weak endings and agree by gender and number: высокий/высокая/высокое/высокие; after ж/ш/ч/щ write и, not ы. Link words smoothly (not word-by-word) to sound natural.

Eyes, Hair, and Plural Adjective Patterns Hair and eye descriptions prefer у + genitive: у него чёрные волосы и карие глаза; у неё светлые волосы и голубые глаза. Plural adjectives take -ые/-ие, with -ие after hushers and г/к/х: новые → новые, русые → русые, карие → карие. Pronounce ы vs и clearly in clusters (ры, ли) and remember that after ж/ш/ч/щ you write и but may hear [ы]-like coloring. Phrases like у другого дома and заберу его clarify location and action.

Travel and Eating Out: Phrases You’ll Use Tomorrow Airport check-in runs on set lines: добрый день; вы летите в…? можно ваш паспорт и билет? положите сумку на весы; у вас есть ручная кладь? вот ваш посадочный талон. In restaurants, ordering stays simple: я буду/возьму…; мне, пожалуйста…; что будете пить?; принесите, пожалуйста…. Dishes like салат Оливье, вареники, борщ, окрошка, котлета, квас, и минеральная вода are staples, and feminine objects in accusative flip -а to -у (пицца → пиццу). Consistent practice with quizzes, dialogues, and feedback cements A1 foundations and prepares you for the next stage.