At a glance
What will be easy
Several Cyrillic letters look and sound like English ones: А, К, М, О, Т. Learn the false friends (Р is r, Н is n, В is v, С is s), and within a week you can read ресторан (restaurant) and театр (theatre).
There’s no a or the, and the present tense drops “to be”: Я студент means “I am a student”, literally “I student”.
Russian has borrowed widely from English, French and German: компьютер, интернет, футбол, музей, бизнес. Once you can read Cyrillic, they jump off the page.
What will be hard
Nouns, adjectives and pronouns change their endings depending on their role: книга (a book), нет книги (there’s no book), читаю книгу (I’m reading a book), о книге (about a book). Learn words in short phrases, not alone.
Most verbs come in pairs: imperfective for a process or habit (читать) and perfective for a completed result (прочитать). You choose between them every time you talk about the past or the future.
Stress can fall on any syllable and moves between forms (рука́, but ру́ку), and unstressed о sounds like a: молоко is “muh-luh-KO”. Add soft consonants and the vowel ы, and you’ll need a lot of listening.
Your first 10 phrases
| Phrase | How to say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Привет! | pree-VYET | Hi! (informal) |
| Здравствуйте! | ZDRAST-vooy-tyeh | Hello (polite) |
| Спасибо | spuh-SEE-buh | Thank you |
| Пожалуйста | puh-ZHAH-luh-stuh | Please; also “you’re welcome” |
| Извините | iz-vee-NEE-tyeh | Excuse me, sorry |
| Меня зовут… | mee-NYAH zuh-VOOT | My name is… |
| Сколько стоит? | SKOL-kuh STOH-eet | How much is it? |
| Где туалет? | gdyeh too-uh-LYET | Where is the toilet? |
| Я не понимаю | yah nee puh-nee-MAH-yoo | I don’t understand |
| До свидания | duh svee-DAH-nee-yuh | Goodbye |
From A1 to B2: what to learn at each level
- A1
Cyrillic, noun gender, the present tense, the prepositional case (в Москве, о книге), possessives, numbers, around 800 words.
- A2
The past tense, the accusative and genitive, the first aspect pairs (читать and прочитать), the motion verbs идти and ехать, around 1300 words.
- B1
All six cases in the singular and plural, aspect in the past and future, motion verbs with prefixes (прийти, уйти), around 2300 words.
- B2
Participles and verbal adverbs, complex sentences, word order for emphasis, idioms and colloquial speech, several thousand words in active use.
How long it takes to learn Russian
According to the US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), a native English speaker needs about 44 weeks of intensive study to reach professional working proficiency in Russian. The closer a language is to your own, the faster the road.
More on timing: How long does it take to learn a language to B1 and B2?.
Your first month, 15–20 minutes a day
The Cyrillic alphabet: 10 minutes of letters a day, then simple words read aloud. By the end of the week you can read names, signs and menus.
Greetings, я, ты and вы, your first 150 words and noun gender (он, она, оно). Start listening to short dialogues.
The present tense of the two main verb types (читать: я читаю; говорить: я говорю) and the prepositional case. Write 3 sentences a day about your day.
First A1 stories and 300 words in review, with the stress marked. Try a five-minute conversation with a native speaker or in a chat.
Typical mistakes and how to avoid them
In the present tense “to be” is simply left out: Я студент, Она дома (she is at home).
After нет use the genitive: У меня нет машины, not “нет машина”. Numbers change the noun too: две машины, пять машин.
To say you finished something, use the perfective: Я прочитал книгу (I read the book to the end). Я читал книгу only says you were reading it.
Possession is usually у plus the genitive: У меня есть брат (I have a brother). Я имею sounds stiff and is rare in everyday speech.
Did you know?
- Cyrillic is named after Saint Cyril, a 9th-century missionary, but it was most likely created by his disciples in Bulgaria.
- Russian has two basic words for blue: синий (dark blue) and голубой (light blue), and speakers treat them as different colours.
- The letter ё is usually printed without its dots, as е, but it almost always carries the stress: ещё, ёлка.
Russian exams
The main international certificates: TORFL / ТРКИ. Many of them map their levels to the CEFR scale from A1 to C2.
How NewLexi helps you learn Russian
- Words on your topics. Russian cards are generated on request or added from the translator, text, a photo or a file.
- Spaced repetition for every word and four mastery levels.
- Stories and dialogues in Russian at your level, written with your words; tap any word for a translation.
- Russian grammar from A1 to C2, a writing trainer with AI correction and a chat.
- Lock Screen cards and iPhone widgets to review words on the go.
FAQ
Is Russian hard for English speakers?
It’s one of the harder European languages for you: cases, aspect and moving stress take time. The good news is that the system is regular, the alphabet takes a week, and there are no articles or tones.
How long does it take to reach B1?
Plan for roughly 600–700 hours of study, about two years at an hour a day. The FSI puts Russian in its harder group, at around 44 weeks of full-time study for professional working proficiency.
Which Russian certificate should I take?
The standard exam is TORFL (ТРКИ in Russian), with levels from Elementary to TORFL-4. TORFL-1 matches B1 and is required for university study in Russia.
Do I need to learn Russian cursive?
At least to read it: Russians write by hand in cursive, and some letters look quite different, such as т, which looks like an m, and д, which can look like a g.
