Russian for beginners

Do you want to study Russian? I will give you some advice to start...

Reading Russian slowly

• If you read Russian words slowly you will learn  pronunciation of letters fast.

Russian words, unlike many English ones are comprehensible when read syllabol by syllabol. Read  до свидания slowly  as : do -svee-da-nee-ya and a Russian will understand that you mean: 'good bye'.
Indeed, if all you need is a 'survial' pronunciation of Russian , it is sufficient to know the values of letters.

• When you read join the letters into syllabols, e.g.  - Мос-ква ( Mos-kva).

If a word contains a large or awkward group of consonants, the group can be split so that some consonants go with the preceding vowel and some with the following:  хо-ро-шо ( ho-ro-sho)  - good, су-ве-нир (su-ve-nir ) -souvenir.
Here is an exercise to check the knowledge of some simple words:
 пиво ( pi-vo) - beer
кофе  (ko-fye) - coffee
Нью-Йорк (nyyoo-york)- New York
почта ( poch-ta)- post office
спасибо ( spa-see-ba - unstressed o is a )- thank you.
That's all for today.Next time I shall introduce you to the 33 of the Russian alphabet in four steps .Once you know their English equivalents, reading Russian words is easy.
Did you like my introduction into Russian? Please, write comment.