The false friends come first
Several Cyrillic letters wear a Latin costume. The one shaped like B is a v sound, the one shaped like P is an r, the one shaped like C is an s, and the one shaped like H is an n.
Learning those half-dozen traps removes most of the frustration. The rest of the alphabet is unambiguous, and unlike English it is close to one letter, one sound.
- Learn the lookalike letters first, not the alphabet in order.
- Do not guess a word from its Latin-looking shape. Check the letters.
Stress is invisible and it matters
Russian does not mark which syllable is stressed, and the stress can fall anywhere in the word. It also changes the vowels: an unstressed o drifts towards an a sound.
This is why a word read with the stress in the wrong place can be hard for a relative to recognise even though every letter was right.
- Books and materials for children often print an accent mark over the stressed vowel. Look for it.
- When in doubt, ask for a recording rather than a spelling.
Endings do the work word order does in English
Russian nouns change their endings depending on their role in the sentence, which is why the same word looks slightly different across a book.
For a two-year-old none of that needs explaining. It is absorbed from hearing whole phrases, which is an argument for reading short sentences repeatedly rather than teaching single words.
- Read the whole short phrase, not the isolated noun.
- Repetition across days does more than explanation in one sitting.
Reading together
A parent who does not read Russian can still carry the English line, point at the picture and hand the Russian to whoever has it, including over a call.
Russian is spoken across many countries, and family vocabulary varies. Use your family's words alongside the printed ones.
- Record a grandparent naming six pictures and replay it at bedtime.
- Say the Russian word first and the English second.
