# Dictionary of Spoken Russian/Russian-English/Section 2

§2. RUSSIAN WRITING
Russian writing and printing, like English, fails to show the place of the stress. In books like the present one, which are intended for non-Russian students, the stress, is indicated by an accent mark, and by two dots over the letter e when it has the value of accented [é]: мука [muka] "torment," мука [muka] "flour," ковёр [kavjor] "rug." Two such marks on one word mean that this word is spoken in two ways, with one or the other stress: броня "armor" means that they say either [bronja] or [branja].
The Russian alphabet, with the most usual values of the letters, is as follows:
| Capital | Small | Value | Name of Letter |
| А | а | [a] | [a] |
| Б | б | [b] | [be] |
| В | в | [v] | [ve] |
| Г | г | [g] | [gje] |
| Д | д | [d] | [de] |
| Е | е | [e, o] | [ye] |
| Ж | ж | [ž] | [že] |
| З | з | [z] | [ze] |
| И | и | [i] | [i] |
| Й | й | [y] | [i kratk'ya] |
| К | к | [k] | [ka] |
| Л | л | [l] | [elj] |
| М | м | [m] | [em] |
| Н | н | [n] | [en] |
| О | о | [o] | [o] |
| П | п | [p] | [pe] |
| Р | р | [r] | [er] |
| С | с | [s] | [es] |
| Т | т | [t] | [te] |
| У | у | [u] | [u] |
| Ф | ф | [f] | [ef] |
| Х | х | [x] | [xa] |
| Ц | ц | [c] | [ce] |
| Ч | ч | [č] | [če] |
| Ш | ш | [š] | [ša] |
| Щ | щ | [šč] | [šča] |
| Ъ | ъ | [y] | [tvjord'y znak] |
| Ы | ы | [i] | [yiri] |
| Ь | ь | [y] | [mjaxk'y znak] |
| Э | э | [e] | [e abarotn'ya] |
| Ю | ю | [u] | [yu] |
| Я | я | [a] | [ya] |
Vowel Letters. The Russian alphabet has two signs for each vowel sound:
| sound: | [a, | e, | i, | o, | u] |
| letter (1) | а | э | ы | о | у |
| letter (2) | я | е | и | ё | ю |
In general, the letters in row (1) simply represent the vowel sound: ад [at] "hell," баба [bdba] "country woman." The letters in row (2) represent the vowel sound and in addition indicate that a preceding consonant has the soft sound: няня [njanja] "nurse"; at the beginning of a word or after another vowel letter or after the letters ъ and ь, they indicate that the vowel is preceded by [y]: яд [yat] "poison," шёя [ščya] "neck," объять [abyatj] "to embrace," семья [sjimjya] "family." There are various special cases and exceptions, mentioned in the following paragraphs.
At the beginning of a word, the vowel sounds are written а, э, и, о, у: ад [at] "hell," это [eta] "this," имя [imja] "name," он [on] "he," ум [um] "intelligence." Note that here и (and not ы) is used; this accords with the fact that at the beginning of a word [i] has its sharp sound, much as after a soft consonant.
Hard and Soft Consonant Spellings. The Russian alphabet has no special signs for the soft consonants other than [č, šč, y] ч, щ, й, which are always soft. There is no letter for the consonant [žj], long soft [ž]; it is written зж or жж: езжу [yežju] "I ride," жжёт [žjot] "he burns."
When a soft consonant comes before a vowel, the vowel letters я, е, и, ё, ю are used to show that the consonant is soft: баба [baba] "country woman": дядя [djadja] "uncle" сет [set] "set (of tennis)": вес [vjes] "weight" сын [sin] "son": винт [vjint] "screw" дом [dom] "house": лёд [ljot] "ice" муж [muš] "husband": люблю [ljublju] "I love"
But after some consonant letters a different choice is made. After the letters ж (including зж, жж), ч, ш, щ the vowels are written a, e, и, о, у: час [čas] "hour," шар [šar] "sphere" ​честь [čestj] "honor," шесть [šestj] "six"
щи [šči] "cabbage soup," шина [šina] "tire"
чорт [čort] "devil," дружок [družok] "little friend"
хочу [xaču] "I want," шум [šum] "noise"
In many words, however, е (which we distinguish as ё) is written for [o] after these consonants: жёны [žoni] "wives," чёрный [čorn'y] "black," шёл [šol] "he went," щёки [ščokji] "cheeks."
After the letter ц they write а, е, ы, о, у: царь [carj] "tsar," цены [ceni] "prices," отцы [atci] "fathers," кольцо [kaljco] "ring," отцу [atcu] "to the father." But in some foreign words they write и: цирк [cirk] "circus."
When a soft consonant is not before a vowel, the letter ь, called мягкий знак [mjaxk'y znak] "soft sign," is placed after it: дать [datj] "to give," свадьба [svadjba] "wedding." However, ь is not used after й: чай [čay] "tea," чайник [čaynj'k] "teapot."
After the letters ч, щ (which represent consonants that are always soft) the ь is written in some words, but not in others: мяч [mjač] "ball," плащ [plasc] "man's cape," but мочь [moc] "to be able" вещь [vjdic] "thing."
The letters ж, ш, which represent consonants that are always hard (except for зж, жж [žj]), are nevertheless written in some words with ь after them: нож [noš] "knife," душ [duš] "shower bath," but рожь [roš] "rye," вошь [voš] "louse."
Spellings for [y]. The consonant [y] is indicated in writing as follows:
After a vowel when no vowel follows, [y] is represented by the letter й: чай [čay] "tea," гайка [gdyka] "screw-nut."
After a vowel when another vowel follows, [y] is indicated by the use of the letters я, е, и, ё, ю for the second vowel: шёя |šeya] "neck," боец [bayec] "warrior," стоит [stayit] "he stands," поёт [payot] "he sings," стою [stayu] "I stand."
At the beginning of a word, [y] occurs only before vowels and is indicated by the use of the letters я, e, и, ё, ю for the vowel: я [ya] "I," ест [yest] "he eats," им [yim] "to them," ёлка [yolka] "Christmas tree," юг [yuk] "the south." Thus the letter и at the beginning of a word is used for both [i] and [yi], but this latter occurs only in a few pronoun forms; see §18.
After consonants, [y] occurs only when a vowel follows. After a soft consonant [y] s indicated by the letter ь and the use of я, е, и, ё, ю for the following vowel: семья [sjimjya] "family," в семье [f sjimjye] "in the family," семьи [sjemjyi] "families," пьёт [pjyot] "he drinks," пью [pjyu] "I drink." After the consonant letters ж, ш, the same spelling is used: ружья [ružya] "guns," шьёт [šyot] "he sews," шью [šyu] "I sew." After hard consonants other than ж, ш, the [y] is indicated by the letter ъ, called твёрдый знак [tvjord'y znak] "hard sign," and the use of я, е, (и), ё, ю for the following vowel: объять [abyatj] "to embrace," объезд [abyest] "detour," объём [abуom] "circumference."
Irregular Spelling. Some words are spelled in misleading ways. In such cases the dictionary indicates the pronunciation in square brackets: дождь [došč] "rain," конечно [-šn-] (that is, [kanješna]) "of course."
The following are the more important cases of irregular spelling:
The adjective and pronoun ending [-ovo] is spelled with г (instead of в): ничего [ny'čivo] "nothing."
The adjective ending [-oy] when unstressed is spelled with ы, и (instead of o): плохой [plaxoy] "bad," but старый (star'y) "old," дикий [djik'y] "wild."
In some verbs the ending for "they" is usually pronounced [-ut] when unstressed, but it is spelled -ят, -at: видят [vjidj't] "they see," слышат [sliš't] "they hear."
In some foreign words e is written for э: туннель [tunelj] "tunnel."
Consonant letters are written double in many words where ordinarily only a single consonant is spoken, especially in foreign words: класс [klas] "class," суббота [subota] "Saturday."