How to Read Russian

Russian language is one of the most difficult languages in the world after Chinese language. But you can learn to read in Russian very easily. All you need to know - Russian alphabet.
Let's say you found this word in Cyrillic: Давай, well the transliteration would be Davay and the pronunciation would be dava'j and the Russian translation would be let's. You can read the pronunciation, right? Try to read this word then Дав...Any luck? I bet you read it. Dav. Good Job on this task.
To make it even easier for you, here is a Russian alphabet with Latin equivalents.

A- A (like in sum)
Б - B (batman)
В - V (Vogue)
Г - G (God)
Д- D (daughter)
Е- E (sell but softer)
Ж-ZH (say it almost like in Georgia)
З - Z (that)
И - EE (meet)
К - K (cat)
Л - L (lamp)
М -M (moon)
Н- N (not)
О- O (not)
П - P (parachute)
Р - R (ram)
С - S (site)
Т - T (teach)
У - U (like in book)
Ф - F (fool)
Х - KH or H (hook)
Ц - TS (think of this one yourself)
Ч - CH (China)
Щ - SCH (the same as TS=)
Ш -SH (and again as TS)
Ъ (to make a consonant hard, always goes after a consonant)
Ь - (adds softness after consonants)
Э - E (like in pen)
Ю - YU (tune)
Я - YA (kayak)

I hope I got them all. There should be 33 letters total.

So if you want to read, lets say this word written in Cyrillic: папа - papa - which means dad. Usually in short words like that the stress goes on the first syllable. By the way there are two syllables in this word made of four letters. Now try to read мама - exactly, it's mama, which means mom. If you see this word, мать - you would read it like that: mat', T at the end is very soft. You need to train on that.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please write me or post a comment.

Speak Russian Words and Sentences like you are Russian

In this post I would like to teach you some of the most commonly used Russian words and phrases in our everyday life. It is very important to understand these easy sentences. Let's say you want to hear a voice of a woman you are corresponding with, then this little guide will help you. Of course, it is better to use a Russian translation service, but you can avoid this by using my notes below.
By the way, Russian reading is very easy to learn. I will talk about it in my next post, so check back later. If you have any comments, please tell me your opinion.
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Notes:

A word in brackets is a pronunciation.

A little apostrophe in a word in brackets after a vowel tells you to put a stress at that syllable.

An apostrophe after the consonant means that it should be soft.
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Let's go, let's learn some Russian.

The most common Russian salutation is: Hi - Привет -Privet - [preeve't];

You want to explain that it's you who are calling her: This is Peter - Это Петер - Eto Peter - [e'to Peter];

After that you want to ask a person how is she doing: Как Дела - Kak Dela - [kak Dela'];

To answer this question: Fine - Хорошо - Horosho - [kharasho'] or Excellent - Отлично - Otlichno - [atlee'chna] or Normal - Нормально - Normalno - [Narma'l'na] or Not so good - Не очень - Ne ochen - [nee o'chen'];

Then you would probably like to say Thank you - Спасибо - Spasibo - [spasee'ba];

To make your phone conversation flow you would ask: What did you do today - Чем занималась сегодня - Chem zanimalas segodnja - [chem zaneema'las' sego'dnja];

After this question, you most likely won't understand her answer, but it's OK, it is your first time. And all you wanted to do is to hear and enjoy a lady's voice, remember?

To say Bye-Bye use До свидания - Do svidanija - [da sveeda'neeja] which is more official, or you can say Пока - Poka - [paka'] people usually say this to their friends, relatives and other close people.

If you want to speak on some serious topics, then contact Russian translator.

Have a good one...

Translation vs Translation - Computer vs Human

A lot of people nowadays are trying to use a machine translation (they also name it a computer or online translation). And a lot of my friends ask me about the differences in machine and human translation. As for the online translation, I looked it through and I think that it is OK. It gives an idea of what a person wants to tell and all that. And of course a human translation is much better, but then you have to pay for it too. So, it is a really up to you to decide whether you want to use one or another. I find the human translation much better. When using an online translator, text comes out so funny and not quiet understandable. Its alright, but is funky and has no flow. I think it leaves some fairly instrumental parts of a text totally out at times. But if you have no option, you can go and use an online dictionary for a few of words as well. By the way not all translation companies or freelancers charge a lot of money. There are a few that charge a fair price. For example if you need a Russian English translation, then I know that for a letter to be translated - it is only two cents per one word which is not much at all. Here is their website: http://www.russian-english-translator.com
I hope this helps.

Russian Woman and Man Name Translation

I meet a lot of people who are wondering about Russia and its culture, people and their traditions. And sometimes people from different countries are curious about Russian first names and last names that are commonly used in Russia. So, I asked to create special pages dedicated to female first names and man first names. You will find a Russian version of a name plus its transcription and a translation for a name. The other important thing on those pages are diminutive name equivalents which can be a very useful knowledge once get to know a Russian person closer and would like to call him those pleasant little names.

Russian Phone Call Translation Service

Russian Translation Pros offers a reliable and convenient Russian Phone Translation service. There are tons of companies and people offering phone interpretation on the web. And it is really difficult to find the right service for you. All of them seem to be pretty good at a first glance. But if you take a closer look, you will find some interesting and not very pleasant details. Some Russian call translators are available only 5 days a week, some have set up fees, some charge for a waiting time and a connection time, some "phone translators" are not professionals, etc.

If you are looking for a professional phone interpreter with a reasonable translation rates, then take your time before paying for the service you are not sure about.

Russia uses Cyrillic in SMS

Russian government has forbidden to send SMS in Russia using Latin letters. SMS - Short Message Service is a very popular in Russia. A lot of people use Latin alphabet when sending their text messages, because it is more economical. For example, one message can contain 60 Cyrillic letters and 100 Latin letters. So, people use Russian transliteration. Well, most Russian mobile companies transliterate their messages which they send to their users. And now cellphone companies must use Cyrillic alphabet.

Russian First TV Channel in Arabic

The first Russian TV channel was launched in Arabic. They say it is a window to modern Russia for the Arab world. People will be able to watch the 20-hour news: Russian, international, and Middle East news, events which are important to the Arab’s culture. This step was needed because of the strong need for a Russian channel. This Russian channel will reflect cultural relations with Arab countries.

Microsoft Online Translation Software

Microsoft has launched its language translation application: Windows Live Translator Beta.

The website urls are the following: www.translator.live.com, www.translate.live.com or www.windowslivetranslator.com. Language that are available for now: German, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Korean, and Arabic.

The online translator is powered by Systran.

Google launched an online language translation program as well.

Russian Sharapova ignores Russia

Russian and world-reknown tennis star — Maria Sharapova refused to participate in Kubok Kremlya competition. Kubok Kremlja is always held in Moscow. The decision was taken by Sharapova and her coach. She lost during last two Kubok Kremlya competitions. This is the reason they are not coming this time. This not-a-nice-behavior has been going on for a long time. And now Russian fans of this famous tennis player from Syberia are mad at her.

Russian hackers crashed skype

Some say that a worldwide skype crash was done by Russian hackers. But skype denies this rumor. On a russian web site there were a lot of articles dedicated to skype as a program itself. They showed different codes and explained that the program was dangerous for your internet identity. If you are interested in reading more about this, you can go to Russian search engine website and search for it. A Russian web site translation can be done with the help of your Russian translation software. Or you can always use google translation as well.