Russian Alphabet Songs: 8 Tunes for Your Russian ABCs
Growing up, learning your ABCs seemed epically important.
Not to mention fun!
Sure, the alphabet song may have tricked you into thinking el-em-en-oh-pee and and were letters, but chances are that it brought you more success than embarrassment.
Russian alphabet songs can set you up for just as many victories on your path to learning basic Russian and learning to read Russian.
As you may already know, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet rather than the Latin alphabet used in English. However, once you’re used to it, it really isn’t all that complicated.
Thankfully, Russian alphabet songs can make the learning process even easier. With the eight songs below, you’ll have the alphabet down pat in no time!
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Why Learn the Russian Alphabet with Songs?
One reason why you should check out Russian alphabet songs is that they can make it easy to memorize the order of the Russian alphabet. If you use a dictionary to look up Russian words, you’ll need to know the order of the alphabet to do so. A Russian alphabet song can make this order super easy to remember.
Plus, learning an alphabet song can help you remember the names of letters. While you can guess some letter names based on their pronunciations, other letters are less obvious. For instance, who could guess that Ь would be called мягкий знак (myagkii znak)? Memorizing an alphabet song can help you remember the names of even the trickiest letters.
Russian alphabet songs are also fun and catchy. They’re just as entertaining as apps for learning the Russian alphabet and just as addictive as your favorite Russian music! You might enjoy singing them even if you can already remember the order of the alphabet and the names of the letters perfectly well.
Finally, some alphabet songs can even help you learn some vocabulary. Some songs have introductions and other words, like animal names, integrated into the song, so you can learn helpful vocabulary words alongside letters.
Sing It Out! 8 Tuneful Resources for Russian Alphabet Songs
“Russian Alphabet Song” from “Улица Сезам”
This version of the alphabet song is from “Улица Сезам,” which is the Russian “Sesame Street.”
The song features a brief introduction that can help you practice some basic vocabulary, like друзья (friends) and буквы (letters), before going through the Russian alphabet in order. To help you along, the video shows you the letters on blocks as they’re named.
The one potential problem with this particular song is that while it might be intended for children, the alphabet goes by pretty quickly for beginning students. Luckily, you can overcome the breakneck pace by following along with the lyrics via Lyrics Translate, which also offers translated text of the song. If you want to learn the introduction better, you might also consider studying this text separately.
“Sing the Alphabet”
This is a really fun, straightforward song for learning the names of the Russian letters. No frills, no extra words.
You can access songs like this on FluentU, which teaches Russian through Russian videos with language learning tools.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
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“Russian Alphabet Song”
If you’re just starting out and looking for a slower, easier-to-follow alphabet song, this one is ideal.
It’s sung slowly and clearly, giving you the opportunity to fine-tune your pronunciation of the letter names. Plus, each letter appears separately on the screen as it’s named, allowing you to focus on connecting each letter to its given name.
While the song jumps right in with the alphabet, there are a few extra words later in the song. Most notably, you’ll hear буквы (letters), русский (Russian), алфавит (alphabet) and тридцать три (thirty-three).
“Learn Russian Letters”
Set to a tune that sounds more traditionally Slavic than the ones above, this Russian alphabet song can help you learn letters while getting you in the mood to really dive into the language.
It isn’t terribly slow, but it isn’t unbearably fast, and it’s approachable regardless of how well you know the Russian alphabet. Rather than showing letters individually, this video shows all of the letters simultaneously and highlights the line of letters that the singer is on. While this makes it somewhat trickier to follow along, you can also use this to your advantage. After you’ve listened to the song a few times, turn off the sound and try singing the song without the help of the audio.
Another huge strength of this particular song is that you’ll hear each letter named at least twice, and some letters are named four times. This will help reinforce the letter names without you having to keep replaying the video.
“Russian Alphabet”
This is an animated cartoon Russian alphabet song in which the Russian alphabet chugs along as train cars.
This is probably one of the slowest Russian alphabet songs you’ll encounter, but the letters aren’t really sung. Instead, they’re spoken while a musical track plays in the background. The song is still quite helpful, though, because there’s enough time for you to repeat each letter before the next letter is introduced. And since each letter appears on the screen as it’s spoken, you’ll have plenty of time to study the shapes.
Another reason why this song is great for beginning speakers is that it features the letters only, so you can focus on learning the alphabet without the intimidation factor of trying to understand unfamiliar words.
If you’re pinched for time, skip ahead to :52. The beginning of the video is really just train noises, which aren’t all that educational.
“Ru Alphabet”
Looking to transition to a new alphabet song challenge?
Sung to the tune of the familiar English-language alphabet song (and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”), this is another super slow alphabet song. However, it will be a little more challenging than other songs because the letters don’t actually appear on screen. Instead, a tranquil Christmas scene appears as the singer goes through the song. Then, viewers are invited to sing! The musical track plays, giving you a perfect opportunity to sing along and see how much you actually remember.
If that’s still too daunting, you can scroll down on the page to look at the letters for a little extra help.
This song also includes a few simple words and phrases you might want to study: я знаю (I know), алфавит (alphabet) and даже (even).
“Bob the Train Song”
If you’re looking for a more unusual challenge, try the “Bob the Train Song.” This is actually a Russian-language song designed to teach children the English alphabet. However, Russian students can still learn a lot from it.
This song is also part of a whole hour-long cartoon for children. Because of this, there are a lot of Russian words, so this might be best for learners who have some experience with the Russian language but are looking to reinforce their alphabet skills. Most of the vocabulary is pretty common, like привет (hi) and буква (letter); however, the sheer volume could overwhelm complete beginners.
Letters are introduced and greeted as they’re loaded onto the train. The alphabet song doesn’t start until much later, 21:06 to be exact. It gives you English letters and English words, however, after the English words, you’ll also hear the Russian words. This is a terrific tool for learning some Russian animal names.
“Animals Russian ABCs”
If you want to keep working on the Russian alphabet and Russian animal names, there’s no video quite like “Animals Russian ABCs.”
Each letter appears on screen as it’s pronounced. Then, a Russian animal name that begins with that letter is introduced as an animation appears to clarify the word’s meaning.
It’s important to note that most letters aren’t given as their actual letter names here, but rather by the sound they make. This song is a fun and catchy resource for practicing pronunciation while expanding your vocabulary, and you won’t find anything much cuter than this.
So the next time you need to remember the Russian alphabet, just sing one of these tunes!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you love learning Russian and want to immerse yourself with authentic materials from Russia, then I should also tell you more about FluentU.
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FluentU has a very broad range of contemporary videos. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of Russian-language content available on FluentU:
FluentU makes these native Russian videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly.
Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab. Easily review words and phrases with audio under Vocab.
All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Russian learners like you. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.
And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.
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