Travel
Trains, station signs, and museum captions across Russia are in Russian first. English thins out quickly outside the main tourist streets.
Aprender ruso
Ruso desde A1: cirílico, lecturas y saludos. La lección Introductions de la app coincide con los ejemplos de esta página.
- Speakers
- About 150 million native; more as a second language in parts of the former Soviet space
- Where it sits
- Official in Russia; also official or widely used in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan
- In the app
- Cyrillic, readings, ru-RU audio
Dónde se usa
Russian is the official language of Russia. It is co-official in Belarus, and it remains an official language alongside Kazakh and Kyrgyz in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. You will still hear it in cities across Central Asia and among older speakers in the Baltics. It is not the state language of Ukraine — that is Ukrainian — even if some cities have long been bilingual in practice. Cyrillic is the script. Once you can read it, signs in Moscow stop being decoration.
- RussiaOfficial. Moscow and St Petersburg are the usual first stops.
- BelarusOfficial with Belarusian. Russian dominates much of city life.
- KazakhstanUsed officially with Kazakh. Almaty and Astana still run a lot of business in Russian.
- KyrgyzstanOfficial with Kyrgyz. Russian remains common in Bishkek.
- Central Asia more broadlyWidely understood in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan cities, without being the sole official language.
- DiasporaLarge communities in Germany, Israel, and the US. Heritage speakers are common.
Para qué sirve
Work
Energy, logistics, and regional trade still use it as a shared language in parts of Central Asia. It is also a UN working language.
Access
A large literature, film, and scientific archive that is not all translated. The alphabet is the bottleneck; it is learnable.
Ciudades donde de verdad lo usarás
These cities are where you will need the alphabet on day one. Neighbourhoods differ; the script does not.
Moscow
Russia
Metro maps, kiosks, office Russian. English on the main tourist ring; Russian everywhere you actually need a stamp or a SIM.
St Petersburg
Russia
Museums, canals, a slightly more tourist-facing city that still runs on Russian.
Kazan
Russia
Tatarstan. Russian plus Tatar on signs. A reminder that Russia is not monolingual.
Novosibirsk
Russia
Siberia's largest city. Far less English than Moscow. The language becomes the only tool.
Yekaterinburg
Russia
Industry and a transit hub between Europe and Siberia. Practical Russian, not postcard Russian.
Minsk
Belarus
Russian in shops and offices. Belarusian is official too; you will see both on signs.
Almaty
Kazakhstan
Kazakh is the state language; Russian is still the language of a lot of urban work and intercity talk.
Qué variedad lee la app
Audio is ru-RU. Ukrainian is a separate language with its own page — not a dialect. The A1 introductions lesson in the app uses the same greetings shown on this site. This is not a claim of a full course yet.
Para quién
Si empiezas de cero o solo sabes unas palabras. Los menús se quedan en el idioma que ya sabes.
En la app
Eliges ruso como idioma de aprendizaje. La lección A1 Introductions tiene Привет, Меня зовут..., Приятно познакомиться y Как дела?. La gramática cubre pronombres personales. El cuestionario son cuatro preguntas de opción múltiple.
Algunas palabras
| Russian | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Привет | Privet | Hello |
| Меня зовут... | Menya zovut... | My name is... |
| Приятно познакомиться | Priyatno poznakomit'sya | Nice to meet you |
| Как дела? | Kak dela? | How are you? |
