What is Russian Cyrillic, and how does the drill work?
The Russian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters — and a Latin reader already half-knows a surprising number of them. Some look and sound familiar (А, К, М, О, Т), some are the classic "false friends" that look Latin but sound completely different (В is v, Н is n, Р is r, С is s, Х is kh), and the rest are genuinely new shapes like Ж, Ф and Щ. Sorting those three kinds out is the whole game, and it takes days, not months.
Start on the Chart tab and tick the letter groups you want to practice — they are ordered pedagogically: the true friends first, then the false friends, then the new letters, the hushers and the vowels and signs. Switch to Practice: a letter appears, you type its romanized sound — v, zh, shch — and the drill advances the moment you get it right. Miss one and you see the answer immediately; the same letter comes back a few cards later until it sticks.
Tick the groups you want to practice, then switch to Practice.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to learn the Russian alphabet?
A few days of short sessions. Around a third of the letters are freebies for a Latin reader, so the real work is the dozen false friends and the handful of new shapes. Most learners read slow-but-correct Russian within a week; the drill’s miss-repetition handles the stubborn ones (В/Н/Р/С are everyone’s last holdouts).
Which romanization does the drill accept?
Standard textbook transliteration: ж = zh, х = kh, ц = ts, ч = ch, ш = sh, and щ = shch (sch works too). The lookalike vowels split cleanly: е = ye, э = e, ы = y, й = j. The two silent signs are typed as words — ь = soft, ъ = hard.
Why do В, Н and Р not sound like B, H and P?
Cyrillic and the Latin alphabet both descend from Greek, but they inherited different sound values for the same shapes — В comes from beta (which shifted to a v sound), Н from eta, Р from rho. These false friends are the main reason Russian looks harder than it is: the drill puts them in their own group so you can hammer exactly those.
Does the drill save my progress?
Your letter-group selection is saved in your browser (no account needed), so the drill opens where you left off. The session stats — seen, correct, accuracy, streak — deliberately reset each visit: the drill is about instant recall today, not long-term statistics.