Script guide › Cyrillic
How to recognize Russian
Russian is one of 8 languages in Grafle's Cyrillic group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Has ы and э (plus rarer ъ, ё); uses и but never the dotted і.
- The 'default' Cyrillic — no extra bars, hooks or accents.
What Russian looks like
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными.
Здравствуйте! Это Москва — столица России.
Старый друг лучше новых двух.
Cyrillic scripts: Look for reversed-looking letters like я and и, plus shapes like ж, д, б, ч.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Russia
- Belarus
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Tajikistan
Easy to confuse with
- Ukrainian — Ukrainian has the dotted і and ї; Russian has ы and э instead. A dotted i in Cyrillic means Ukraine. On street signs, Ukrainian shortens вулиця (street) to вул., Russian улица to ул.
- Bulgarian — Bulgarian uses ъ as an everyday vowel (България, съм); in Russian ъ is rare and silent.
- Serbian — Serbian mixes in the Latin-looking ј (је, Србије, сија); Russian has ы and э instead.
- Kazakh — Kazakh text bristles with қ, ң, ә and і; pure Russian has no barred or hooked letters.
- Mongolian — Mongolian doubles its vowels (уу, ээ, өө) and uses ө/ү; Russian never doubles vowels that way.