Guide Note

The most spoken Slavic language in the world, Russian is the official language of Russia and one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Thanks in part to Russia's status as a sociopolitical superpower, the Russian language is widely utilized in the arenas of science, politics and mass communications.

This page contains resources for learning and studying the Russian language.

Fast Facts

1. Language Family: Indo-European
2. Number of Speakers: 278 million
3. Official Language: 7 countries including Russia and the United Nations
4. Regulated by: Russian Language Institute
5. Writing System: Cyrillic
6. Major Dialects: Northern Russian, Southern Russian
7. Derived Languages:
   • Balachka: Cossack dialect
   • Fenya: Criminal argot
   • Nadsat: Fictional language used in A Clockwork Orange
   • Quelia: German and Russian pidgin
   • Runglish: Russian and English pidgin

Because written Russian utilizes the Cyrillic alphabet, the following phrases are formatted as follows: Common English Phrase: Russian Pronunciation.

• Yes: Da
• No: Net
• Excuse me: Yzveenee
• Please: Pozhaluista
• Can you tell me please: Skazheete pozhluista
• Thank you: Spaseebo
• Do you speak English?: Vy gavareeteh pa anglisky?
• I don't speak Russian: Ya ne gavareeu na ruskom
• My Russian is bad: Ya ploha gavaru pa Ruski
• I do not understand: Ya ne paneemau
• Could you speak slowly?: Gavareeteh medlenie