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Russian, a free sleep-and-learn session

Russian is spoken by around 150 million native speakers, and used as a second language across much of the former Soviet Union. Cyrillic looks unfamiliar to Latin-script readers at first, but many letters map fairly directly to sounds once you've seen them a few times. This course shows each phrase in Cyrillic with a stress-marked phonetic guide underneath.

This course shows each phrase in Cyrillic with a stress-marked phonetic guide underneath, working through the same greetings, travel, and conversation basics as every other Nocturnal Voice course. Every phrase is spoken aloud, shown with a phonetic guide, and listed in full underneath the player โ€” read along, listen with your eyes closed, or both.

Study notes

Learning Russian: what to know before tonight's session

Script & sound

Russian is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. If it looks unfamiliar, that's normal โ€” the phonetic guide under every phrase on this page (and in the word list below the player) exists specifically so you never have to guess.

Three things worth knowing early

A common early mistake

Reading Cyrillic as if it were Latin letters (treating ะ  as "p" or ะ as "h") is the most common early mix-up โ€” it's worth spending a session just on the alphabet.

How to use this page: pick a theme above, press play, and let the hour run. If you'd rather browse than listen, scroll to the word list under the player โ€” it holds the full theme in text, with a play button on every line.
Quick answers

Russian course FAQ

How many people speak Russian?

Russian is spoken by around 150 million native speakers, and used as a second language across much of the former Soviet Union.

What script does Russian use?

Russian is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Every phrase on this page is shown in that script alongside a plain-English phonetic guide, so you're never stuck if the characters feel unfamiliar.

What's a common beginner mistake in Russian?

Reading Cyrillic as if it were Latin letters (treating ะ  as "p" or ะ as "h") is the most common early mix-up โ€” it's worth spending a session just on the alphabet.

Keep going

Other languages on Nocturnal Voice