Phrases for travelling
Useful phrases for travelling
A few very basic phrases for travelling in Russia are provided below.
We recommend also the Lonely planet Russian phrase book for travellers.
Russian | English |
---|---|
Да | Yes |
Нет | No |
Здравствуйте | Hello |
Спасибо! | Thank you! |
До свидания | Good bye |
Добро пожаловать | Welcome |
Меня зовут… | My name is… |
Вы говорите по-английски? | Do you speak English? |
Очень приятно | Nice to meet you |
Мне нужна помощь | I need your help |
Скажите ,пожалуйста, где туалет? | Where is the toilet |
The Cyrillic alphabet is closely based on the Greek alphabet, with about a dozen additional letters invented to represent Slavic sounds (short history of the Russian language »). There are very few pronunciation rules in Russian, words are pronounced the way they are spelled and vice versa. An overview of the the pronunciation of all letters of the Russian alphabet is provided below:
English/Russian/English Electronic Dictionary
Letter | Pronunciation | Letter | Pronunciation | Letter | Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | ‘Ah!’ but short | б | ‘b’ as in ‘bet’ | в | ‘v’ as in ‘Vette’ |
г | ‘g’ as in ‘Gucci’ | д | ‘d’ as in ‘dad’ | е | ‘Yay!’ but short |
ё | ‘Yo!’ as in ‘Yo, dude!’ | ж | ‘zh’ as in ‘azure’ | з | ‘z’ as in ‘zit’ |
и | ‘ee’ but short | й | ‘y’ as in ‘Yuck!’ | к | ‘k’ as in ‘kit’ |
л | ‘l’ as in ‘let’ | м | ‘m’ as in ‘met’ | н | ‘n’ as in ‘net’ |
о | ‘Oh!’ but short | п | ‘p’ as in ‘pet’ | р | ‘r’ as in Scots ‘run’ |
с | ‘s’ as in ‘set’ | т | ‘t’ as in ‘Tet’ | у | ‘Oo!’ but short |
ф | ‘f’ as in ‘fifty’ | х | ‘kh’ in Scots ‘loch’ | ц | ‘ts’ as in ‘lets’ |
ч | ‘ch’ as in ‘church’ | ш | ‘sh’ as in ‘shush’ | щ | ‘shch’ ‘fresh cheese’ |
ъ | hard sign | ы | between ‘i’ and ‘u’ | ь | soft sign |
э | ‘Eh?’ (short) | ю | ‘yu’ as in ‘you’ | я | ‘ya’ as in ‘yacht’ |
You may check also the BBC quickfix languages web page for other pronunciation examples.
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